By Professor Paul Eidelberg
"The Constitution places the nation's armed forces under the civil authority
and jurisdiction, not of the judiciary, but of the Congress, and then the president,
when properly acting as commander in chief," the brief says. "U.S.
courts consistently defer to the judgment of military leadership under the doctrine
of 'military necessity.'"
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1955 that "judges are not given the task
of running the Army," and again in 1983, "centuries of experience
have developed a hierarchical structure of discipline and obedience to command,
unique in its application to the military establishment and wholly different
from civilian patterns. ..."