CAAF issues oral argument schedule through 1 December
CAAF has issued its scheduled oral arguments through 1 December (available here). CAAF has also issued this helfpul list of other dates on which it’s contemplating hearing argument.
Sixteen cases are set for argument between 27 September and 1 December. Eight of those are Air Force cases, five are Naval cases, and the remaining three are Army cases.
Two other non-trailer cases have been granted, one from the Air Force (Beaty) and one from the Army (Soto). There are also two certified issues (Rose and Humphries), both from the Air Force, for which argument hasn’t been scheduled.
Do NOT want to start an interservice discourse, but am curious why the Air Force has (and to my recollection always seems to have) the most cases at CAAF.
Being on the AF side, I’ve wondered the same and I’ve come up with 4 possibilities:
1) bad decisions by trial judges
2) bad opinions by CCA
3) good appellate advocacy
4) good issue preservation by TDC
I tend to think it’s either 2 or 3 b/c 1 and 4, at least in theory, should be resolved before CAAF. In any event, it is an interesting statistic.
I believe the USAF-heavy CAAF docket is not unique to the upcoming argument season. The highest-profile cases (with the exception of capital and appellate delay issues) have been largely USAF for a number of years. Is it partially because the USAF court-martials Airmen for crimes that other services chapter out their members? I don’t know, but I think RY’s musings are likely correct.
And it seems the Navy/Marine Corps Team leads the pack on appellate delay issues. Wonder why? Oh, that’s right – we now have a “panel” (Independent Panel Review of Judge Advocate Requirements of the Department of the Navy) which will answer that question.
The AF probably has the most because Dwight Sullivan has a nose for the grantable issue. Kudos to Dwight and his 20/20 military justice vision.
You do a bit of disservice to the military appellate defense counsel. Mr. S is counsel on only 1 of the 8 AF cases.
I agree that Dwight’s addition to the USAF appellate defense office probably has some correlation to the current CAAF docket, but I think you’ll find the prominence of USAF cases at CAAF predates his arrival.
Anon and Ama beat me to the punch. I believe that there are 9 Air Force cases with non-trailer grants pending on CAAF’s docket. I wrote the supp in only one of those cases. So whatever accounts for any disproportionate number of Air Force grants has nothing to do with me.