Via a reader tip from the Open Thread comes this article that shows how the US Court of Appeals has decided to get involved in cases involving male military servicemembers who were questionably convicted of rape:

Under a 2006 law, the military can seek charges of sexual assault if the victim was “substantially incapacitated” from drinking too much alcohol. Judges and juries are told that means the victim couldn’t “appraise the nature of the sexual conduct,” communicate unwillingness or make competent decisions. The military defines that level of intoxication as “well above” drunken driving limits, but it doesn’t say exactly what it is.

Military judges, meanwhile, have assailed the law that created the new definition as confusing and possibly unconstitutional.

Earlier this year, for instance, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces dismissed charges against Stephen Prather, an Air Force enlisted man who’d been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a drunken encounter. The court concluded that the law had resulted “in an unconstitutional burden shift to the accused.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link but the story about the Marine Captain convicted and jailed for rape that is next up for the US Court of Appeals to review is another questionable conviction.  I wonder if his conviction is overturned whether he can get his career in the USMC back as well? Anyway this all goes back to what I have always believed, don’t ever hook up with other soldiers especially if there is alcohol involved.  If you do then at least go to hotel and don’t hook up in the barracks.  At least if the woman goes to the hotel with you, it is arguable that she showed consent.