Court Opinion

ID: 9496927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:39:12.873967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:53.793721
License: Public Domain

DYK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the decision of the Department of the Army Active Duty Board (“DAADB”) on the merits must be set aside because the proceeding was not properly initiated by the Secretary, but instead was initiated by a Personnel Management Officer at the Army’s Full Time Support and Management Center.
The majority relies on decisions of our court holding that, when a selection board is improperly constituted, its decisions on the merits must be set aside. See ante at 1362-1364. I have no quarrel with those decisions, but they simply have no application when the issue is whether the proceeding was improperly initiated. For the answer to that question we must turn to cases dealing with errors in the initiation of proceedings. Those cases require a contrary result.
First, even in the grand jury context, improper grand jury proceedings do not normally require setting aside a petit jury verdict of conviction. See United States v. Mechanik, 475 U.S. 66, 106 S.Ct. 938, 89 L.Ed.2d 50 (1986). In Mechanik, the grand jury proceedings allegedly violated Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(d), which limits those who may be present at a grand jury proceeding. See id. at 68, 106 S.Ct. 938. However, the defendants did not discover the alleged violation until after their trial had commenced. The district court denied a motion to dismiss the indictment after the petit jury had convicted the defendants. Id. The Supreme *1366Court held that any error in the grand jury proceeding was harmless:
[T]he petit jury’s verdict rendered harmless any conceivable error in the charging decision that might have flowed from the violation. In such a case, the societal costs of retrial after a jury verdict of guilty are far too substantial to justify setting aside the verdict simply because of an error in the earlier grand jury proceedings.
Id. at 73, 106 S.Ct. 938.
The Court “express[ed] no opinion as to what remedy may be appropriate for a violation ... that has affected the grand jury’s charging decision and is brought to the attention of the trial court before the commencement of the trial.” Id. at 72, 106 S.Ct. 938.1 Here, the alleged error in the initiation of the proceedings was not raised until after the decision recommending removal. Thus, the improper initiation of the DAADB proceeding was harmless.2
Second, even if the error in the charging decision were not harmless, the initiation of the charge was plainly ratified by the Secretary in his final decision approving the appellant’s release from active duty on January 20, 1998.3 The District of Columbia Circuit decision in Doolin Security Savings Bank, F.S.B. v. Office of Thrift Supervision, 139 F.3d 203 (D.C.Cir.1998), is quite similar. There, a bank alleged that the proceedings against it for allegedly unsafe and unsound banking procedures were invalid because they had been initiated by the filing of a Notice of Charges against the bank by an “Acting Director” who had never been nominated, confirmed, and appointed to the position. See id. at 204. The court of appeals held that, even if the proceedings had been improperly initiated, the director who issued the final decision — who had properly been appointed to the position pursuant to the Vacancies Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 3345-3349 — had ratified the Notice of Charges by issuing that final decision. Doolin, 139 F.3d at 211, 214. This was so because the director in Doolin had issued his final decision “at a time when he could have initiated the charges himself.” Id. at 214. So too here, the Secretary could have initiated the charges when he ratified the DAADB’s decision releasing the appellant from active duty, as the regulations do not limit the period for the initiation of such actions. See Army Regulation 600-8-24 ¶¶ 2-31, 2-32.
Under these circumstances, it is clear that any error in the initiation of the pro*1367ceedings here was either harmless or rendered moot by the Secretary’s ratification. I respectfully dissent.

. The Supreme Court subsequently held that its "customary harmless-error inquiry is applicable where ... a court is asked to dismiss an indictment prior to the conclusion of the trial.” Bank of N.S. v. United States, 487 U.S. 250, 256, 108 S.Ct. 2369, 101 L.Ed.2d 228 (1988).

. The Court in Mechanik also distinguished the situation where "racial discrimination in the composition of the jury that indicted the defendant” existed because “racial discrimination in the selection of grand jurors is so pernicious, and other remedies so impractical, that the remedy of automatic reversal [i]s necessary as a prophylactic means of deterring grand jury discrimination in the future.” 475 U.S. at 70 n. 1, 106 S.Ct. 938 (citing Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 106 S.Ct. 617, 88 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986)). There is no allegation of discrimination in this case.

.This action was taken by the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs pursuant to delegated authority, see United States Army General Order No. 10 ¶ 8 (Aug. 12, 1997). The appellant contends that personal action by the Secretary was required, relying on Army Regulation 600-8-24 ¶2-3111 and Roberts v. Vance, 343 F.2d 236 (D.C.Cir.1964). The majority here does not hold that personal action by the Secretary was required, and Roberts does not hold otherwise. Roberts merely holds that secretarial approval of the release is not itself sufficient if the required Board proceedings were not held. Id. at 239.