Case ID: us-ct-cl_40/html/0514-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THOMAS L. HARTIGAN v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [38 C. Cls. R., 346; 196 U. S. R., 169.]
    
      On the claimant's Appeal.
    
    The question in the case is whether the President can summarily dismiss a military' cadet at West Point without there having been a conviction and sentence by court-martial.
    The court below decides:
    1. The Revised Statutes (sec. 1229) provide that no officer in time of peace shall be dismissed from the service except upon and in pursuance of a court-martial. A cadet is not an officer within the intent of the statute, and the President has power to dismiss him summarily.
    
      2. The Revised Statutes (§134*2, art. "99) declare that tlie word “ officer ” shall be understood to designate commissioned officers, and the word “ soldier ” noncommissioned officers, musicians, artizans, and privates. • xl cadet is uncommissioned, and is neither an officer nor a soldier, though in the military service.
   The decision of the court below is affirmed on the same grounds.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court January 3, 1905.