Questions of the Week - 10-09-2009 - Answered

Background to last week's questions can be found at original posting here.

Questions of the Week:

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1) What is the intended goal of Navy and Marine Corps JAG study?

ANS: According to the conference committee, the goal is to determine how many more military lawyers are needed. The committee said it has noted "with concern, the increasing demands being placed upon judge advocates in the Navy and Marine Corps to fulfill critically important wartime legal roles with minimal or no commensurate increases in judge advocate manning or billets." The conference has also questioned the Marine Corps' decision not to create additional judge advocate billets or to increase judge advocate manning as part of its overall growth in active-duty personnel of 27,000 since 2007. source BLT article: Wanted: More Military Lawyers?

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2) Which of the traditional (excluding USCG) military services added the most JAG officers from 2008 to 2009?

ANS: As The National Law Journal reported on June 6, the Navy JAG corps, with approximately 770 judge advocates, has seen the greatest increase from 2008 to 2009-- a 100% jump. (ibid.)

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3) Which of the traditional military services added the fewest JAG officers from 2008 to 2009?

ANS: The Marine Corps, with the smallest complement of lawyers at about 440, had only a slight increase.

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4) Politics being what it is, dominated by members of the legal profession, can you think of an ulterior motive for the JAG study of the Navy and Marine Corps?

ANS: Augmentation of JAG billets justifies higher-ranked officers in the JAG chain of command. Ultimately, Congress will increase pay for all judge advocates.

The war on terrorism has been exploited by the military judge advocates general (JAGs) to increase their numbers. The proliferation of military lawyers is at an all-time high, with Army JAG strength 10 percent larger than it was at the end of the Cold War.

The three senior JAGs for the Army, Navy and Air Force, known as TJAGs, want three-star rank similar to the surgeons general of the services. But they need a larger corps of military lawyers to justify the boost in rank, we are told. Legislation to increase the three-star rank was proposed this year but failed from lack of Pentagon support. source - Inside the Ring, Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, September 15, 2006, The Washington Times.

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5) Pictured above (in the original posting) is CAPT Richard Stewart (USN, ret.) now an assistant general counsel for a major telecommunications company. As a civilian military law expert currently featured on the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps News & Announcements An interview with a JAG Corps Trailblazer!, would Capt. Stewart be eligible for the panel conducting the Navy & Marine Corps study?

ANS: Yes, certainly, as would many, many more civilian lawyers. The 5 actually placed on such a panel, however, need not even have military service to their credit. What really counts with lawyer-politicians are points with big-name law firms who can hire their lawyer kids.

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Juan Caruso detests lawyer-politcians doesn't he?