Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Circuit Blog

Criminal Law

: Fourth Circuit Blog

Army Board decision on application for discharge reinstated

By Jonathan Byrne

Kanai v. McHugh: Kanai, a West Point cadet in his final year, sought a discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. The Department of the Army Conscientious Objector Board denied Kanai's application on the basis that he failed to demonstrate sincerely-held beliefs entitling him to conscientious objector status. The Army subsequently relieved Kanai of his duties at West Point; Kanai went home to Maryland and filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2241. The district court granted Kanai's petition, and the Army appealed. In determining whether the district court had jurisdiction to hear Kanai's habeas petition, the Fourth Circuit was presented with a question the federal courts have not yet resolved: where should habeas suits be filed when the petitioner is not in jail? The Fourth Circuit sidestepped the challenge to formally resolve the precise meaning of the phrase, "within their respective jurisdictions," in section 2241(a), finding instead that this statutory language "identifies the proper location of the federal district court in which a habeas petition should be filed," rejecting a subject-matter jurisdiction analysis (in accordance with the Supreme Court's holding in Rumsfeld v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Circuit Blog on March 07, 2011 (boomark / email).