US Justice Department can use military lawyer to prosecute civilian, judge rules

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It's not dead, it's just sitting on the couch tweeting its indignation

US sure is being run like a third world dictatorship… with so many citizens cheering it on. I guess that’s also a feature of a third world dictatorship.

I wouldn’t say it’s dead yet. It’ll depend on the outcome of midterms and the next presidential election. I personally think Republicans will do anything to cheat their way to a win, and if so, and the country just shrugs and accepts it like last time, then it’s officially dead.

Democracy was murdered January 6th, 2020. The corpse was dumped in the pine barrens when Donnie Moscow wasn't put before a tribunal for high crimes and treason on January 7th at 12:01AM.

Worse, it's undead. It's diseased but acting like it's alive. In a zombie state, if you will.

No, just American democracy. Canada is fine, Australia and New Zealand are fine. Europe is fine. American democracy is dead. Mind you American democracy has been dead for 40 or 50 years, the corpse has just become bloated enough for everyone to smell it.

was it ever really alive?

"Protect & Serve" was a marketing slogan adopted by the LAPD. It is not, nor has it ever **been** something police in the US are expected to actually uphold.

So say we all

Yeah too bad the police don't protect and serve anybody but themselves

Some of the absolute worst AUSAs I've delt with have been JAG assigned to work military cases for the DOJ. Most AUSAs at that level are already pretty trash... Overworked, under trained and under supported to accomplish even petty offense dockets.  While I know DOJ is short staffed, they are short staffed so badly because of their own desire and poor management. Put a unskilled JAG into that situation and it's a recipe for real disaster, and don't rely on the Judicial Branch to correct it, in a timely manner if at all.

Its a bad precedent and can turn into a slow degrading of Federal Courts into Military Tribunals.

The military is not supposed to be used against civilians. There's a law against it, the Posse Comitatus Act. There are exceptions made for JAGs to be used to be used to help prosecute civilians, but it's only in cases where the Army has an active interest, which they do not here. It's illegal, it's just that the judge claimed she had no way of removing the lawyer. I don't know about you, but I think openly breaking the law is bad for democracy.

"Weird but not particularly dangerous unless I'm missing something." you've never been on the receiving end of jag then. sincerely, trans soldier discharged in 05 ( paul f****** manafort called me a national security threat, for being trans... i am not bitter or resentful though... )

Yea but it's the jag lawyer in a normal court.... It's not suddenly jag court and rules....?? Did I miss something

This isn't new law, for what it's worth. According to the ruling the judge is saying that doing this is already allowed based on existing exceptions that Congress has carved out to the law that prevents this. ...it is disheartening that a lot of the Trump administration's perceived abuses of authority are apparently just bullshit Congress said was okay like ten years ago, but it's where we're at.

>This is a potential method to create a civilian populace beholden to what the military says is law,  How? You kinda just made this part up. Judges use civilian law in civilian court. 

There's ZERO support for subjecting civilians to military law. This is just the DOJ finding warm bodies to prosecute cases because they can't hire lawyers

The trick is to constantly rewrite the past to make the party infallible.

its irrelevant, because if trump is gone, assume its auto-pardons for anyone prosecuted. thems tha breaks Trump. thems tha fuckin breaks

The average lifespan of an Empire is 250 years, says the internet, but I dont feel like this can be true as we have had the Roman Empire, the Byzantine, Chinese Dynasties, the entirety of Japan until like 100 years ago, the Egyptian Empire, the Persians, etc. Theres so many insanely long lasting EMPIRES i just dont see how it can average down to 250 years. If you can only last 10 years or 20 are you really an "empire"?

Still blows my mind that there was an entire chain of command that looked at the command "blow up that random fishing boat" and was like "welp, guess we're doing this." Not a single spine present. We need every single name.

I always roll my eyes when people imply the military night protect us from facsism and authoritarianism. They've never sided with justice over the government and never will.

Oath breakers...that's what they are, f*** them

They should have couped Trump on January 21, 2025. The fact that they let a traitor reasoned the title of Commander In Chief is evidence of their moral void. They betrayed their oath.

So much for defending the country from all threats.

Support fascism or find another job. Tough choice.

If they cover administrative hearings instead of trials it would free up the State AAGs who probably do things like license suspensions which aren't going to be reviewed until they walk in the room anyway. The agency's administrative employees and investigators are responsible for the procedural due diligence of identifying a violation and effecting notice. ... mainly it just requires a licensed attorney to present the case and question witnesses. Which is basically the issue... JAGs are licensed attorneys somewhere in the US... just not particularly that state... this case is basically saying "That's close enough for government work." ... and just because something is a terrible idea showcasing poor leadership and decision-making doesn't mean it's illegal. My main question would be what budget they get paid from... because they would be accruing a military pension by doing civilian DOJ work.

>Recent appointees in confirmation hearings have refused to say that Trump is ineligible to serve (himself) a third term. One thing that's very interesting about this is that the Twenty Second Amendment was passed because conservatives were terrified another FDR would come along. Rules for thee, not for me, I suppose.

Pretty sure you just made that up? >Each officer of the Navy appointed as a member of the JAG Corps, each officer of the Marine Corps designated a judge advocate, and each civil service and contracted civilian attorney who practices law under the cognizance and supervision of the JAG shall maintain a status considered “in good standing” at all times with the licensing authority admitting the individual to the practice of law before the highest court of at least one State, Territory, Commonwealth, or the District of Columbia. They can perhaps keep their employment and be assigned to other duties, but they of course can’t practice law in the courts without a license.