The Case for Termination of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Abstract

Since 1951, the military’s equivalent of a state supreme court has been a specialized civilian court responsible for appeals under a single Act of Congress, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. After nearly three-quarters of a century, a clear trend of assimilating military and civilian law, a plummeting caseload, and substantial reason to doubt the wisdom of conferring appellate jurisdiction over courts-martial on a specialized court, this Essay suggests that the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces should be terminated and its jurisdiction transferred to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Keywords: federal courts, military justice