Comments on: Padding the bill: The CBO issues what looks like a highly inflated cost estimate for the Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel Act

By: Mike "No Man" Navarre

Mike "No Man" Navarre — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:35:00 +0000

I’ll side with the Anon crowd a little here and concede there is some cost to the G for the labor. While the Code 45/GAD/JAJG/[insert CG attorney's name] labor doesn;t cost anymore, CBO typically bases these estimates on available man hours and estimated additional man hours. That is, will those organizations have to create a new billet or hire a civilian counsel (EGAD!) to make up for the short fall that all the SCOTUS work is creating. Typically this assumes 100% current employment, whcih may or may not be the case. But, economists can assume anything away. So I would agree there is some cost, just nothing even close to $500K, much less $1 million.

By: Dwight Sullivan

Dwight Sullivan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:18:00 +0000

I’m not being facetious here, but there is zero cost to the United States arising from having a Code 46/GAD/JAJG counsel work on an opposition to a cert petition. The captain/major will be paid exactly the same regardless of whether he spends 100 hours over a two-week period working on CCA/CAAF cases or 140 hours over a two-week period working on CCA/CAAF/SCOTUS cases. So I’m not interested in whether someone could make it look like there’s would be a cost to DOD from a granted cert petition. I’m asking whether DOD would actually spend any money it wouldn’t otherwise have spent.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:13:00 +0000

Any AF GADs around from 10 years ago?

Under the DoD inst the GADs shall write the draft cert or opposition. Then they are required to coordinate w/OSG. Does that mean a GAD counsel writes the merits? Possibly. I am not familiar with the CBO “bean counting” method. So the costs associated would be the valuation of time that GAD has to put in (defense counsel insert joke here____). I am not sure if there is some bean counting methodology in coordinating with GAD and DoD GC, the various services, etc. Cost, yes. Millions? Doubtful.

By: Dwight Sullivan

Dwight Sullivan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:06:00 +0000

2202 — is that true even where the Supremes have granted cert? (Something that hasn’t happened in a non-military commission military justice case for a decade). And is there ANY monetary cost arising from Code 46/GAD/JAJG’s involvement in litigation before the Supremes?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:02:00 +0000

The SG doesn’t “handle” it entirely. The DoD instruction requires the GADs to write and coordinate with the SG. Granted, that price is not in the millions (though I do regard myself that highly!). But it is not as if GAD drive the case file down to Pennsylvania Ave and and drops of a box of filings.

By: Dew_Process

Dew_Process — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:07:00 +0000

That is crap!!! With a LOT of Bull attached!

Dwight is right on here. There's NO cost on the Gov't side - the SG's office handles that, and for Appellate Defense, there's printing costs, which can be under $10K unless they've got some funky "no bid" contract, and postage is de minimis.

If it creates a "man power" issue at Defense Appellate, activate a Reservist who has SCOTUS experience.

Isn't the BADC working this issue hard? Someone should contact them to see what the ABA's position was, but this is a "false official statement" from the start!