United States v. Rivera

Opinion of the Court

Quinn, Chief Judge:

A divided board of review affirmed the accused’s conviction by general court-martial of two specifications of sodomy, in violation of Article 125, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 925.1 The issue which split the board of review, and which is the basis of the accused’s petition to this Court, is whether the Navy policy for disposition of homosexuals embodied in SECNAV Instruction 1620.1 deprived the convening authority of discretion to dismiss the charges or to refer them to other than a general court-martial for trial.

In a prefatory statement…