What are the possible issues you will see at the Mock Trial of the Winter Soldier at San Diego Comic Fest? Check out our podcast with Mike Towry and learn about the awesome guests attending SDCF and some of the issues that will be on trial for James Buchanan Barnes, from the insanity defense to how the trial will work.
Supergirl posed an interesting question: The President ordered General Lane and the Army to take over the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) after Hank Henshaw was captured by Kryptonians. Would this violate the Posse Comitatus Act?
The answer is….maybe? The legal analysis gets funky fast with secret government agencies fighting aliens.
The Army is expressly forbidden from conducting law enforcement pursuant to the Posse Comitatus Act:
Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
18 USCS § 1385.
The Department of Extranormal Operations is a secret Federal government agency whose mission is to safeguard the country from aliens. DEO Agents pose as FBI Agents when interacting with the public. The issue is whether the DEO is a secret law enforcement agency or secret military organization in answering whether the President’s order for the Army to take over the DEO violated Posse Comitatus.
The evidence for the DEO being a law enforcement agency is the fact the DEO actively conducts surveillance for alien activity in the United States and captures aliens unlawfully in the country. The Constitution deems the immigration of aliens as exclusively Federal issues. People v. Salazar-Merino (2001) 89 Cal.App.4th 590, 598; U.S. Const. art. I, § 8. While the Founding Fathers did not envision this provision applying to beings from other worlds, technically the DEO is very similar to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in its mission to protect the country from “alien” aliens in the United States.
The DEO certainly has weapons similar to what the Army uses, operates out of bunkers, and does not arrest aliens, but captures them for imprisonment. There is no due process, very similar to the Army capturing soldiers of an invading army as prisoners of war.
If the DEO were a law enforcement agency task with protecting the borders from aliens from other worlds, the Army taking over the DEO would be illegal, because the Army would be engaging in direct law enforcement. These prohibited activities generally include: arrest, seizure of evidence, search of person, search of building, investigation of crime, interviewing witnesses, pursuit of escaped civilian prisoners, search of area for suspects and other like activities, and any such use of federal military troops. United States v Red Feather (1975, DC SD) 392 F Supp 916.
Passive military assistance that does not violate Posse Comitatus include the following:
Mere presence of military personnel under orders to report on necessity for military intervention;
Preparation of contingency plans to be used if military intervention is ordered;
Advice or recommendations given to civilian law enforcement officers by military personnel on tactics or logistics;
Presence of military personnel to deliver military material, equipment or supplies to train local law enforcement officials on proper use and care of such material or equipment and to maintain such material or equipment; and
Aerial photographic reconnaissance flights.
United States v Red Feather (1975, DC SD) 392 F Supp 916.
General Lane took command of the DEO from its acting director, used torture to gain information, and had his troops conduct a raid with the DEO. All of these actions look like direct law enforcement activities (and civil rights violations of an extraterrestrial alien).
If the DEO was a branch of the military authorized to conduct law enforcement, similar to the Coast Guard, then the President’s order for General Lane to take command of the DEO and engage in military action on US soil would have been lawful.
We are adding two witnesses to our San Diego Comic Fest Mock Trial of the Winter Soldier: James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, and Natasha Alianovna Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. We also have roles for a bailiff and courtroom clerk.
Update! We have three volunteers for Black Widow, James Buchanan Barnes, and the clerk. We still need a bailiff.
Witnesses need to be familiar with their witness statements and the events of Captain America The First Avenger and Captain America The Winter Soldier. Each witness will have a direct examination, followed by a cross-examination, and possibly re-direct. A law student will work with you on your testimony and how to be a witness.
Cosplayers interested in participating as witnesses must be able to attend San Diego Comic Fest on Saturday February 13, 2016. The fictional trial will be presided over by a Federal Judge and the trial conducted by law students. If interested, please review the witness statements and contact us on the form below.
Black Widow Witness Statement
James Buchanan Barnes witness Statement
Mock Trial Exhibits
Cosplayer sign-Up Form
Our 2015 was awesome. We attended San Diego Comic Con, were nominated for a Geekie Award, and geeked out to Star Wars The Force Awakens.
Check out our 2015 Year in Review, where Jessica and I share our top 5 geek moments from a fantastic year.
Yub Nub. Ewoks are tool-welding primates that took down Imperial AT-ST Walkers and Storm Troopers with rocks, logs, and cuteness. Ewoks lived in tree villages and prepared tramps for creatures taller than Ewoks, such as human beings. Let’s not forget Ewoks were very ready to have a Rebel BBQ of Han, Luke, and Chewbacca. It is also highly possible Ewoks ate the Imperials they captured at the end of Return of the Jedi.
How would galactic society respond if humans started wearing Ewok fur? Ewoks likely would make excellent slippers for the citizens of Coruscant. People on Hoth would pay top credits for Ewok fur coats. Parents on Yavin 4 would take photos of Younglings on Ewok skin rugs (likely causing the child to turn to the Dark Side after images were shown to a prospective boyfriend or girlfriend).
There are many arguments Ewoks are a sentient species, because they have a language, established a faith system, use tools, wore skins as limited clothing, achieved non-powered flight for combat, and live in a functioning social order in a highly engineered tree village. This should be enough for anthropologists and the Republic to view Ewoks as a young pre-industrial species, despite no signs of a written language. Ewoks were nowhere near as sophisticated as Wookiees with space flight, but developmentally above Wampa.
Former Imperial worlds likely would see Ewoks as feral vermin who may or may not have eaten a family member. Ewoks contributed to the deaths of every Imperial on the second Death Star, easily over a million people. Assuming the Imperial Navy did not fire bomb Endor for revenge, the Knights of Ren establishing a fur trading company on the moon after retrieving the helmet of Darth Vader, would be evil retribution for the Empire’s defeat.
If Ewok fur became a profitable inter-planetary trade, the Republic and Resistance would put a stop to interstellar Ewok poaching. Ewoks would be deemed a “protected species,” because their poaching would generate illegal funds to fill the economic void created by the destruction of the second Death Star. This “Darth Market” enacting a Doctrine of Fur would fuel instability with criminal enterprises designed to trap Ewoks, with now out of work Imperial construction workers turning to poaching to make ends meet.
Starkiller Base could have been funded by illegal Ewok fur trading. The planet was big enough for the First Order to maintain Ewok pens to supply a galaxy hungry for fur products. Children conscripted as Stormtroopers could have been the labor force in the production of Ewok slippers, shawls, blankets, and capes, only adding the list of war crimes committed by Supreme Leader Snoke’s First Order.
Worlds under Republic control would enact a labeling guide for imported fur products to avoid Ewok pelts entering the market. Just as the United States prohibits cat and dog fur from being imported into the US, the Republic would have similar laws to prevent Ewok mittens being sold illegally.
Impressible young people might try to disrupt interplanetary Ewok harvesting ships by ramming Imperial/New Order vessels in space. These “Ewok Wars” could be a popular reality show on the core network, but would highlight extremely poor stellar-seamanship.
My grandmother threw family Christmas Eve celebrations like they were a 1980s Bruce Springsteen concert.
She was a German-Irish farm girl who grew up in Iowa during the Great Depression. She learned in the “Dust Bowl” what it was like to go without.
Those experiences gave her a resolve to make sure Christmas Eve was a blow out event for her daughters and ultimately grandsons. If she were still alive today, she could vlog best practices on making Christmas special for children.
How did she excel at making Christmas magical for others? First, she understood everyone in the family. She would pick up gifts over the course of the year, wrap them, and hide them in her walk-in closet. Secondly, that woman was an amazing cook. She understood from her childhood on a farm the importance of a good meal for those who spent their days doing hard labor. Every meal was made with love.
The Christmas Eve dinner was oyster stew before church, because seafood was a luxury item for those in Iowa. The tradition moved west with my grandparents to California (for the record, cold cuts were also made on Christmas Eve, because oyster stew definitely skipped the third generation). After what seemed like a church service that lasted an eternity to any child, we would return home to shred wrapping paper like it was an Olympic sport. Christmas Day was a full feast of prime rib and adventure with the entire family.
My grandmother’s forever glowing spirit is what made Christmas special, not the gifts she gave. She brought people together. She took the time to plan, prepare, and skillfully execute a holiday plan that left generations with a lifetime of happy memories.
I wish everyone had such positive Christmas memories, but life has more than its share of challenges for many. Hardship can severely diminish hope. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and World War 2, an extended period of fear that gave her extreme determination to help others during her life. As I think about this Christmas, and those in need, I am reminded to always be kind to others.
Nothing says parenting with the stick instead of a carrot like telling children that Krampus will whip them and drag them to Hell for a year if they are bad.
This stands in stark comparison to Santa Claus, who rewards positive behavior with toys for good children. Where Santa is the gift-giving version of the NSA, Krampus makes enhanced interrogations look like caroling.
Assuming Krampus could be prosecuted in a human court, what crimes is he committing against children?
Krampus whipping and taking children to Hell is an absolute denial of the Due Process rights for the accused children. The 14th Amendment requires that no one can be deprived of their life and liberty without the due process of law.
Krampus represents convicting children of wrongdoing without a trial and sentencing them to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. While one Maryland court in 1883 held whipping a husband who brutally assaulted his wife did not violate the Maryland constitution or the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, this is the minority view. Foote v. State (1883) 59 Md. 264, 267.
As one New Jersey court noted, there are three forms of punishment in the United States: fine, imprisonment, or death. As for punishments such as dunking in water, it is “to be doubted the corporeal punishment for crimes was ever the law of this State after its declaration of independence from England and adoption of its first Constitution (1776).” State v. Palendrano (Super.Ct. 1972) 120 N.J.Super. 336, 339, fn. 2, referencing “The Whipping Post and Some of Its Uses“, 15 N.J.L.J. 356. As such, the whipping of children is simply not permitted.
Krampus taking children to Hell for a year is an extreme form of imprisonment without a trial. It is difficult to imagine what offense a child could commit justifying imprisonment in Hell, thus is disproportional punishment on its face, short of an seven-year old committing a war crime. While many parents might claim their child can be a terror with low blood sugar, children are not know for fire bombing civilian targets.
The military would respond swiftly if Krampus were a real entity committing child abduction for Christmas. Instead of NORAD providing holiday cheer with tracking information on Santa Claus, the NSA, CIA, FBI, and the military would be on high alert tracking Krampus with the same resolve as a nuclear missile launch.
Luckily, we live in a world where Christmas is celebrated for kindness, whether Christians are celebrating the birth of Christ, or others embracing the human spirit to be good to each other. There is a reason this ancient folk legend has largely been ignored across the Earth.