Judge Allows Use of Military Lawyers to Prosecute Civilians

Monday, May 04, 2026

The Trump administration's assignment of military lawyers to help the Department of Justice prosecute civilians for offenses unrelated to the military cannot be prevented by a court as it does not violate federal law, a Minnesota judge ruled on Friday.

Posted by jpw at 04:32 PM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink

While JAG lawyers historically have prosecuted crimes with a clear military connection, experts say the way the Trump administration is deploying them to handle cases enters new legal territory with no clear-cut answer.

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-- Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) Apr 5, 2026 at 1:32 PM

Comments

So even though the cases aren't at all related to military matters and the Army has no interests in the case, military lawyers can be used to prosecute civilians in Trump's America.

Brief written by 11 former JAG officers in support of the defendant:

protectdemocracy.org

This arrangement has traditionally been construed to allow the
military services to take part in cases in which they had a clear and defined
interest"such as traffic violations committed on military installations subject to
exclusive federal criminal jurisdiction"while giving courtroom experience to
junior JAG officers.
However, the government recently expanded this practice far beyond its
historical and statutory bounds. Public reporting suggests that the government has
detailed dozens of JAGs to U.S. Attorney's Offices in Minnesota, Washington,
D.C., and Tennessee, backfilling vacancies left by civilian resignations.2 During
these temporary duty assignments, JAGs are not prosecuting cases with a nexus to
the U.S. military. Instead, they are prosecuting civilians for the kind of general,
domestic federal offenses that civilian DOJ prosecutors would normally handle.

I mean, how can you not call this martial law? At least the seeds of martial law.

#1 | Posted by jpw at 2026-05-04 12:30 PM