II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1408 

To enhance effective prosecution and defense in courts-martial, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 22, 2017 

Mrs. ERNST (for herself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To enhance effective prosecution and defense in courtsmartial, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. ENHANCEMENT OF EFFECTIVE PROSECUTION 

4 AND DEFENSE IN COURTS-MARTIAL AND RE5 LATED MATTERS. 

6 (a) ADDITIONAL ELEMENT IN PROGRAM FOR EFFEC7 TIVE PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE.—Subsection (a)(1) of 

8 section 542 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 

9 Fiscal Year 2017 (Public Law 114–329; 130 Stat. 2126; 

10 10 U.S.C. 827 note) is amended by inserting before the 


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1 semicolon the following: ‘‘or there is adequate supervision 

2 and oversight of trial counsel and defense counsel so de3 tailed to ensure effective prosecution and defense in the 

4 court-martial’’. 

5 (b) ASSIGNMENT OF CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES TO SU6 PERVISE LESS EXPERIENCED JUDGE ADVOCATES IN

7 PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE.—Such section is further 

8 amended— 

9 (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 

10 subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and 

11 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol12 lowing new subsection (c): 

13 ‘‘(c) ASSIGNMENT OF CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES TO SU14 PERVISE LESS EXPERIENCED JUDGE ADVOCATES IN

15 PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE.— 

16 ‘‘(1) ASSIGNMENT AUTHORIZED.—The Sec17 retary concerned may assign the function of super18 vising and overseeing prosecution or defense in 

19 courts-martial by less experienced judge advocates to 

20 civilian employees of the military department con21 cerned or the Department of Homeland Security, as 

22 applicable, who have extensive litigation expertise. 

23 ‘‘(2) STATUS AS SUPERVISOR.—A civilian em24 ployee assigned to supervise and oversee the pros25 ecution or defense in a court-martial pursuant to 


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1 this subsection is not required to be detailed to the 

2 case, but must be reasonably available for consulta3 tion during court-martial proceedings.’’. 

4 (c) PILOT PROGRAMS ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOP5 MENTAL PROCESS FOR JUDGE ADVOCATES.—Subsection 

6 (d) of such section, as redesignated by subsection (b)(1) 

7 of this section, is amended— 

8 (1) in paragraph (1), striking ‘‘establishing’’ 

9 and all that follows and inserting ‘‘a military justice 

10 career track for judge advocates under the jurisdic11 tion of the Secretary.’’; 

12 (2) by redesignating paragraph (4) as para13 graph (5); and 

14 (3) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol15 lowing new paragraph (4): 

16 ‘‘(4) ELEMENTS.—Each pilot program shall in17 clude the following: 

18 ‘‘(A) A military justice career track for 

19 judge advocates that leads to judge advocates 

20 with military justice expertise in the grade of 

21 colonel, or in the grade of captain in the case 

22 of judge advocates of the Navy, to prosecute 

23 and defend complex cases in military courts24 martial. 


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1 ‘‘(B) The use of skill identifiers to identify 

2 judge advocates for participation in the pilot 

3 program from among judge advocates having 

4 appropriate skill and experience in military jus5 tice matters. 

6 ‘‘(C) Guidance for promotion boards con7 sidering the selection for promotion of officers 

8 participating in the pilot program in order to 

9 ensure that judge advocates who are partici10 pating in the pilot program have the same op11 portunity for promotion as all other judge advo12 cate officers being considered for promotion by 

13 such boards. 

14 ‘‘(D) Such other matters as the Secretary 

15 concerned considers appropriate.’’. 

Æ 


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