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

Summary

The President must make rules for 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, matters under article 6b(c) or (e), and pre-referral issues about pretrial confinement, an accused person’s mental capacity or responsibility, and requests for an individual military lawyer. The rules must say what a military judge can decide, how those decisions can be reviewed, and set limits so only issues a general or special court-martial judge would handle are included. The President may also limit what relief can be ordered. If a pre-referral issue later becomes part of charges that go to a general or special court-martial, it must be moved to the military judge assigned to that court-martial. The Secretary of the military department must make rules about how judges are assigned to these pre-referral hearings. A military judge assigned to most pre-referral hearings (but not hearings about electronic communications warrants/orders) may appoint a military magistrate to run the hearing.