United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
From Judgepedia
federal court that exercises worldwide appellate jurisdiction over members of the U.S. Armed Forces on active duty and other persons subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The court is composed of five civilian judges appointed for 15-year terms by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.
The court reviews decisions from the four service appellate courts - Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and Navy-Marine Corps Courts of Criminal Appeals. Cases on the court's docket address a broad range of legal issues, including constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, criminal procedure, ethics, administrative law, and national security law. The cases before the court may only be reviewed upon a granted petition for review (which only occurs in 10 percent of cases), by certificate from an individual service judge advocate general, a sentence of death, a petition for extraordinary relief or a writ appeal petition. Statistics show that the court only reviews approximately 10 percent of all court-martial convictions. Unlike all other U.S. geographical Courts of Appeal, the court's review is purely discretionary and not by way of direct right of review.
Decisions by the court are subject to direct review by the Supreme Court. However, the court functions as gatekeeper of the Supreme Court unlike any other federal appeals court in the United States. Denials from petitions for review or relief in extraordinary petitions are currently not subject to review by the Supreme Court. Two bills have been introduced in the 110th Congress to permit the Supreme Court to review cases in which the court either denies a petition for grant of review or denies relief in an extraordinary petition. The House bill, Equal Justice for Our Military Act of 2007 passed by voice vote on September 27, 2008 and is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate.
