GMJR Highlights Relevant Opinion from Judicial Conference re: Reservists Serving as MJs while Full Time DOJ Attorneys

9/30/2021

Read more here.

"Given Advisory Opinion 76, should Reserve Component (RC) judge advocates who are state prosecutors or public defenders be assigned as general or special court-martial military judges, CCA judges, or military magistrates? What about RC judge advocates who are Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Main Justice attorneys, or federal defenders?"

Earlier we spotted a case where a federal child obscenity prosecutor sat as an MJ in a child abuse case.

Anonymous

9/30/2021 09:00:26 pm

That advisory opinion is pretty weak support for what you are advocating. It is just a conclusory statement with no analysis, and seems based on federalism and separation of power concerns that aren’t that relevant to the military justice context. It is a stretch.

What is the alternative? If we want Reservist military judges with criminal law expertise than they need to be either prosecutors or members of the defense bar in their civilian lives. I don’t see the justification in only allowing members of the defense bar (and per your advisory opinion, only private defense attorneys and no public defenders) or people with no criminal law expertise be Reservist MJs.

Attorney

9/30/2021 09:36:42 pm

I have a solution: no more reservist MJs. I mean no direspect, but why do we have them? There is a case to be made that JAGs today are underworked. While I don't agree with that view, I neither find evidence that there is an abundance of courts-martial requiring us to call in the reservists. They do not practice military justice full time, and ours is a constantly evolving system.

I wonder what the reaction by DOJ would be if we proposed a "pilot program" allowing active duty judge advocates to preside over a civilian trial or guilty plea in federal district court once or twice per year. . .

Brenner M. Fissell

9/30/2021 11:55:28 pm

This seems obviously right. Why even raise the perception issue?

1984

10/1/2021 03:11:37 am

You still have the converse: part-time civilian prosecutors.

I believe Judge Crawford was still prosecuting cases in Maryland as an ASA.

Comments are closed.

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GMJR Highlights Relevant Opinion from Judicial Conference re: Reservists Serving as MJs while Full Time DOJ Attorneys

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