Justia Military Law Opinion Summaries

Kenneth Karwacki was convicted by a special court martial of delivering peyote to fellow soldiers and received a bad-conduct discharge from military service. Later, he applied for a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Wisconsin. The state denied his application under Wis. Stat. §941.29(1m)(b), which bars firearm possession by anyone convicted of a crime elsewhere that would be a felony if committed in Wisconsin. Although the military court labeled his offense a misdemeanor, Wisconsin classified his conduct as a felony under its own laws.Karwacki brought a federal lawsuit, arguing that Wisconsin’s decision to treat his military misdemeanor conviction as a state-law felony violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution and his Second Amendment rights. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin entered judgment in favor of the state, rejecting Karwacki’s claims.On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. The Seventh Circuit held that the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not apply to federal court martial convictions because such proceedings are not “judicial Proceedings of any other State,” nor has Congress prescribed any effect for court martial judgments in the states. The court also concluded that Wisconsin did not fail to give effect to the court martial’s judgment, as it imposed only collateral consequences under state law. Addressing the Second Amendment, the Seventh Circuit reasoned that neither the federal nor Wisconsin’s statutory scheme is facially invalid, and that individuals convicted of distributing illegal drugs are not entitled to as-applied relief from firearms disabilities. Therefore, the judgment was affirmed. View "Karwacki v Kaul" on Justia Law

The plaintiff, Jose Antonio Cossio, Jr., sought reconsideration of his bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force, which stemmed from court-martial convictions in 2004. Cossio had used his access to an Air Force computer system to reroute another airman’s paycheck to an orphanage in Siberia, leading to his conviction for larceny and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other charges. He was sentenced to ten months of confinement, demotion, a fine, and a bad-conduct discharge. His convictions and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal in the military courts.Cossio has repeatedly challenged his convictions and sentence over the years. In this case, he petitioned for writs of habeas corpus and mandamus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, arguing that his conduct did not meet the elements of larceny and that a Supreme Court decision invalidated his computer fraud conviction. The district court dismissed his petitions, finding that Cossio did not meet the requirements for habeas corpus jurisdiction as he was not “in custody” under 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c) and that he did not meet the essential elements for a writ of mandamus.The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. The court held that Cossio was not “in custody” as required for habeas corpus jurisdiction because the consequences of his convictions were collateral and did not restrain his physical liberty. Additionally, the court found that Cossio’s petition for a writ of mandamus failed because he did not demonstrate that the Secretary of the Air Force had a clear, nondiscretionary duty to grant the requested relief, nor did he show a clear right to the issuance of the writ. View "Cossio v Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals" on Justia Law