On 21 June 2007, the CAAF announced a new term of court. The term of court that beings on 1 October 2007 will end on 31 August 2008. Thereafter, all terms will begin on 1 September and end on 31 August. No explanation for the change was provided. There must be a CAAF expert out there who knows. Would the esteemed Colonel Sullivan of CAAFlog care to venture an opinion?
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I have no insider knowledge concerning the shifting term dates -- in fact, I didn't even know it had happened until I read it on this blog. But here's my guess.
If you've read David Maraniss's biography of Vince Lombardi, you know that tattooed onto the fingers of Lombardi's father's left hand was the word "WORK" and tattooed onto the fingers of his right hand was "PLAY." See David Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered 15 (2000). Perhaps CAAF is altering its term for work reasons; perhaps it is altering it for play reasons.
First the work reasons. CAAF tries to get all of its opinions out by the end of June. As I just noted in a post on CAAFlog, it has already succeeded in doing that this term with the exception of Wilson, 06-0870/AR, in which it has ordered additional briefing. Perhaps CAAF wants to keep that deadline but give itself a bit of extra time so it doesn't have to release 14 decisions in two days, as it did this Thursday and Friday. If so, perhaps it is moving the start of the term up a month to have additional time to make the June 30 internal deadline.
Alternatively, maybe CAAF will move the June 30 deadline up to the last day of May. (How many days are in May? I can never remember that damn poem.) If so, its reason might be to have a summer vacation that lasts almost precisely from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Particularly if some of the judges want to teach at law school summer programs, such a gap would be advantageous.
Or maybe there's some other reason that isn't visible to me why September 1 is a more natural opening day than October 1 -- again, I'm just taking a couple of shots in the dark.
Colonel Sullivan's comments suggest he is a cynic. But after pondering the available evidence (or rather the lack thereof), I can come up with no better explanation.
In the immortal words of Alice Cooper, "SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER." While our troops fight the good fight against terrorism year round, CAAF takes a vacation. Message well sent.
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