[QUOTE=Otto]
Yes, please.
[/QUOTE]
Shortly after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (the highest military appeals court) decided two cases, US v. Marcum, 60 M.J. 198 (2004), and US v Stierwalt , 60 M.J. 297 (2004), which set out the framework for applying Lawrence in the military context.
In Marcum, the court set out a three-part test to determine when particular conduct would be protected by the “liberty interest” set out in Lawrence as follows:
First, was the conduct that the accused was found guilty of committing of a nature to bring it within the liberty interest identified by the Supreme Court [i.e. did the accused conduct involve private, consensual sexual activity between adults]? Second, did the conduct encompass any behavior or factors identified by the Supreme Court as outside the analysis in Lawrence [For instance, did the conduct involve minors, public conduct or prostitution, persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused]? 539 U.S. at 578. Third, are there additional factors relevant solely in the military environment that affect the nature and reach of the Lawrence liberty interest?
In Marcum, a Air Force Technical Sergeant in charge of a training group socialized with a Senior Airman under his supervision. Among other incidents, one evening the SrA fell asleep, and awoke to find the (male) TSgt kissing his penis. Amid conflicting evidence regarding consent, the TSgt was convicted of Non-Forcible Sodomy. After Lawrence came down while the case was on appeal, the Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces examined the conduct under the three part test above, and found under the third question, that the TSgt had violated an Air Force instruction prohibiting sexual relationships between supervisors and subordinates in the same chain of command. As such, the conviction was upheld. The court did not address the homosexual aspect of the conduct, finding conviction supportable on the supervisor/subordinate ground.
In Stirewalt, a Coast Guard Petty Officer had been accused of a variety of charges, including Rape and Forcible Sodomy, but after an initial appeal reversed his first conviction, pleaded guilty to Non-Forcible Sodomy as in an incident with a (female) Lieutenant (JG) who served aboard the same Coast Guard Cutter as the accused. The court applied a similar analysis to Marcum, and found that accused had violated a Coast Guard regulation against romantic relationships between crewmembers of the same Cutter as well as the prohibition of officer/enlisted fraternization, and upheld the conviction.
Later cases by the lower appeals courts for each of the services have upheld sodomy convictions in situations including: sodomy with the wife of a sailor who was standing duty at the time, open and notorious sodomy in the barracks in Japan by a married male sailor stationed with Japanese civilians, 30-year recruiter having oral and vaginal sex with a high school senior prospective recruit in violation of regulations, oral sodomy with wife of airman deployed to Middle East, sneaking 16-year old (of legal age under military law) into barracks without pass and giving her alcohol, sex in public space aboard navy ship, repeated sodomy while on duty on patrol as military policeman, and sex involving incest. On the other hand, military courts have reversed sodomy convictions where there were not any of these types of additional factors, including (all .pdf files): simple oral sex with civilian in private barracks room, sex acts between two privates in locked barracks room before she told him to stop, guilty plea of consensual sodomy with soldiers of equivalent rank and no duty connection.