Opinion ID: 187182
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Military Commissions Act

Text: The Military Commissions Act provides that the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of a final judgment rendered by a military commission (as approved by the convening authority) under this chapter, except that [t]he Court of Appeals may not review the final judgment until all other appeals under this chapter have been waived or exhausted. 10 U.S.C. § 950g(a)(1). Khadr contends that this jurisdictional provision has been satisfied because the military judge issued an order dismissing all charges and because all appeals of that order have been exhausted. We do not agree. The military judge's order is not a final judgment as required by 10 U.S.C. § 950g(a)(1)(A). It has long been well established that the reversal of a lower court's decision sets aside that decision, leaves it without any validity, force, or effect, and requires that it be treated thereafter as though it never existed. Butler v. Eaton, 141 U.S. 240, 244, 11 S.Ct. 985, 35 L.Ed. 713 (1891); see also Wheeler v. John Deere Co., 935 F.2d 1090, 1096 (10th Cir.1991); Atlantic Coast Line R.R. Co. v. St. Joe Paper Co., 216 F.2d 832, 833 (5th Cir.1954); Keller v. Hall, 111 F.2d 129, 131 (9th Cir.1940); Corpus Juris Secundum, Federal Courts § 712 (2008). Once the military judge's order in this case was reversed by the CMCR, it lost all legal effect. An order that has become a legal nullity could not possibly constitute a final judgment. [] Further, the final judgment must be approved by the convening authority to satisfy the statute. See 10 U.S.C. § 950g(a)(1)(A). The military judge's order in this case has not been approved by the convening authority, nor could it be at this juncture. The Military Commissions Act defers convening authority review until after a military commission has found guilt and announced a sentence. See 10 U.S.C. § 950b. In this way, the statute clarifies that the final judgment contemplated by the statute is very final. It is not a pretrial procedural decision like the one at issue here. Khadr advances three main arguments in an attempt to evade the plain language requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 950g(a)(1)(A). None has merit. First, he argues that his reading of the Military Commissions Act, which would allow review of the military judge's order irrespective of the finality of the CMCR's decision, is not unique. He points to another statute, 38 U.S.C. § 7292(a), which does not explicitly premise appellate review of trial-level decisions on the finality of an intermediate appellate court's decision. But that statute, which applies to appeals of decisions from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and thus has no relevance here, does not expressly require a final decision from the trial-level court. See Williams v. Principi, 275 F.3d 1361, 1363 (Fed.Cir.2002) (quoting 38 U.S.C. § 7292(a)). The Military Commissions Act does. Khadr next seeks support from jurisdictional procedures in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), but Congress expressly stated in the Military Commissions Act that the UCMJ does not apply to trials by military commission unless specifically indicated. See 10 U.S.C. § 948b(c)-(d). Congress did not specifically provide for the application of any jurisdictional provisions from the UCMJ to appeals of military commission decisions, but instead required a final judgment, approved by the convening authority, and appealed through the administrative process. Thus, the UCMJ provides no jurisdictional help to Khadr. Finally, Khadr argues that the Government has shown, through its conduct and regulations, that it agrees that an appeal is authorized in this case. Khadr points to notice he was given when he was served with the CMCR's decision that Rules for Military Commission 908 and 1201 provide `a right to petition the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit' within 20 days of the date of this notification. Rules for Military Commission 908 and 1201, he argues, support the notice's statement because they speak in general terms of a right to appeal the decision of the CMCR on any appeal. The problem with Khadr's argument is that courts of appeals have only [the] jurisdiction [that] Congress has chosen to confer upon them regardless of the actions of the parties, even when one of those parties is the Executive Branch. Moms Against Mercury, 483 F.3d at 827 (quoting Cutler v. Hayes, 818 F.2d 879, 887 n. 61 (D.C.Cir.1987)). Parties, of course, cannot confer jurisdiction; only Congress can do so. Weinberger v. Bentex Pharms., Inc., 412 U.S. 645, 652, 93 S.Ct. 2488, 37 L.Ed.2d 235 (1973); see also Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443, 452, 124 S.Ct. 906, 157 L.Ed.2d 867 (2004). Thus, once Congress determined the limits of this Court's jurisdiction in the Military Commissions Act, no rule, regulation, or notice given by the Executive Branch could expand those limits. The statute requires a final judgment by a military commission, approved by the convening authority, for which all administrative review has been exhausted, 10 U.S.C. § 950g(a)(1), and requires that Executive Branch rules and regulations not be contrary to or inconsistent with those statutory requirements, 10 U.S.C. § 949a(a). The regulations and notice given Khadr did not change the statutory preconditions to our jurisdiction. Because they have not yet been met in this case, the Military Commissions Act does not give us jurisdiction.