§830a Art. 30a. Proceedings Conducted Before Referral

Summary

The President must make rules for how to handle hearings that happen before charges are sent to a court-martial. The rules must cover things like pre-referral subpoenas, pre-referral warrants or orders for electronic communications, matters sent by an appeals court, certain matters under section 806b(c) or (e), and pre-referral issues about pretrial confinement, an accused person’s mental capacity or responsibility, and requests for a military lawyer. The rules must say what a military judge may decide, how those decisions can be reviewed, limit the hearings to only the issues a judge would handle at a general or special court-martial, and limit what relief can be ordered. If an issue from one of these hearings later becomes part of charges sent to a general or special court-martial, that issue must be moved to the military judge assigned to the court-martial. The Secretary in charge must make rules for how judges are assigned to these hearings. A military judge assigned to such a hearing (except for hearings about electronic-communications warrants or orders) may name a military magistrate to run the hearing under the Secretary’s rules.