United States ex rel. Hirshberg v. Cooke, Commanding Officer (336 U.S. 210)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 28, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 336 U.S. 210 · 69 S. Ct. 530
- Decided
- February 28, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This case raises important questions concerning the statutory jurisdiction of general courts-martial of the Navy. In 1942 the petitioner was serving a second enlistment in the Navy. Upon the surrender of the United States forces on Corregidor petitioner became a war prisoner of Japan. After liberation in September, 1945, petitioner was brought back to the United States and hospitalized. He was restored to duty in January, 1946. March 26, 1946, he was granted an honorable discharge because of expiration of his prior enlistment. The next day he re-enlisted, obligating himself to serve four years “subject to such laws, regulations, and articles for the government of the Navy as are or shall be established by the Congress ... or other competent authority . . . .” About a year later, petitioner was served with charges directing his trial by a general court-martial of the Navy. The specifications included charges that during his prior enlistment the petitioner had maltreated two other naval enlisted men who were also Japanese prisoners of war and who were members of groups of prisoners working under petitioner's charge. Petitioner filed a plea in bar of the trial, one ground being that the court-martial was without jurisdiction to try him for alleged offenses committed during a prior enlistment at the end of which he had…
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