Court-Martialing Military Retirees Should Be Stopped Until Congress Acts, Lawyers Say
2 Sep 2020
Military.com | By Gina Harkins
The military's ability to court-martial some retirees and not others is a "textbook violation of equal protection," an opening brief filed this week with a top court of appeals says.
Lawyers representing Stephen Begani, a retired Navy chief petty officer who was court-martialed shortly after leaving the Navy in 2017, filed their opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Monday. Begani filed a petition earlier this year for the top military appellate court to hear his case after a lower court determined he'd been rightly court-martialed.
Begani was subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice as a member of the Fleet Reserve. Sailors and Marines who leave active duty after serving more than 20 years, but less than 30, move into that status if they want to collect retiree pay.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/02/court-martialing-military-retirees-should-be-stopped-until-congress-acts-lawyers-say.html
