You are right. The military made a point of pressing charges that would keep the whole eligibility issue out of the question.
That wasn’t because the military was worried about LOSING on the legality of orders to deploy to combat, but because they didn’t want to give Lakin a microphone for him to spew nonsense over. Lakin was going to lose either way. The military chose an approach that robbed Lakin of what he & his idiot supporters wanted: a platform for their nonsense. It was an intelligent and effective move by the prosecutors.
The Democrats largely opposed the Korean War. There were folks then who wanted to avoid deploying based on it being an unconstitutional war. None of them received any sympathy. Nor should Lakin. It isn’t the military’s job to decide those issues. That belongs to Congress.
“That wasn’t because the military was worried about LOSING on the legality of orders to deploy to combat, but because they didn’t want to give Lakin a microphone for him to spew nonsense over. Lakin was going to lose either way.”
__
Yes, I think that’s correct. And in Footnote 3, toward the end of her ruling, Col. Lind mentions in passing the de facto officer doctrine:
“The Court recognizes the existence of the de facto officer doctrine, recognized and described by the Supreme Court 111 Ryder v. U.S, 515 U.S 177 (1995). In light of the Court’s ruling that judicial review of the issues of whether President Obama is a natural born citizen or is otherwise qualified under the Constitution to hold office is precluded by the political question doctrine, the Court declines to address the applicability of the de facto officer doctrine in this case.”
It’s interesting to me that she cites as her reason for not invoking it the political question doctrine. I might have expected her instead to depend on the fact that the orders didn’t come from the President. But I’m not the Chief Judge of the 1st Judicial Circuit, so I’m happy to defer to her understanding of the law.