Two defendants in military sexual assault cases cannot be punitively
discharged, if found guilty, because of “unlawful command influence”
derived from comments made by President Barack Obama, a judge ruled in a
Hawaii military court this week.
Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton ruled during pretrial hearings in two
sexual assault cases — U.S. vs. Johnson and U.S. vs. Fuentes — that
comments made by Obama as commander in chief would unduly influence any
potential sentencing, according to a court documents obtained by Stars
and Stripes.
But wait, what are future repercussions?
President Barack Obama’s call last month for strict punishments for military sexual assault — and a military judge’s ruling that those comments from the commander in chief crossed the line — will likely have immediate impacts on sexual assault prosecutions, military legal experts said.
Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton issued the ruling last week in two sexual assault cases
just as controversy over the military’s allegedly lax handling of such
cases reached a boiling point in Congress, where legislators writing
next year’s defense authorization bills sparred over whether commanders
should control prosecutions for sexual assaults within their chain of
command.
No mention of lax handling of sexual assaults & harassment by the State Department.
ReplyDeleteCamel Thighs in 2016.
This is not difficult to figure out. A constituency wants to see the military's chain of command authority progressively hollowed. By his uttering the words that have been determined to be unlawful command influence, Obama has now set up the scenario that for the remainder of his presidency, courts-martial will not be able to implement a bad conduct discharge. This gives ammunition for those in Congress who want to take cases dealing with sexual misconduct out of the hands of commanders and place it into the hands of federal judges, who have either long-term or life appointments, so they are obviously not subject to unlawful command influence as their positions are secure. Thus, a cynic would conclude that Obama intentionally said what he said...to provide the final piece of ammunition that will remove from the military, the authority to hear sexual misconduct cases.
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