Federal disrict court judges seemingly are enjoining Trump at the drop of a hat. Anti-Trump zealots are fully engaged in forum shopping. The more lawsuits the merrier. The binge of news on the legal front jarred a faint voice loose from within me. While much of today’s news involves rage and tons of litigation erupting from sea to sea against Trump, I’m instead reminded of 1971.

Papa was walking down a corridor of Long Bien Jail (LBJ) when a plantive voice called to me. He knew me because I had represented his co-defendant in a courts martial. The two enterprising young men were in the process of cornering a segment of the heroin market on their base. Supply types. they were often driving on and off base for deliveries. An ideal time to stuff a satchel with vials of heroin. With the satchel hiddden under the front wall of the truck’s cab it was 90 % profit to be made. All that was needed was to go through the base entry gate.

I’m quite positive that Vietnam was a war zone at the time. MPs guarded the entry gates to the base. And, for whatever reason, the guards made more than a cursory check of the truck and its contents one fateful day. Busted.

So charges were duly filed, defense appointed and the process began. At the time the military had a diversion program that would become popular with criminal courts throughout Ameica second chances. No trial, no conviction and no punishment. In Vietnam a more powerful incentive existed for the defndant. If a first offense and one had a drug problem they’d be administratively discharged and on a Freedom Bird within 5 to 7 days. The ultimate second chance. No dream was bigger for any of us in country than the day we’d step aboard a Freedom Bird. Home awaited.

Papa had had a hand in setting up the administrative discharge of drug users scheme. I knew how it worked. My client naturally jumped at the chance to go home for his opportunity to seek rehabilitation. Treatment may have been far fom a priority for him but I fear actual availability in the states was also a pipe dream. Out of the service, out of mind and out of the country served both sides well. He was home for at least a month before that voice beckoned to me in LBJ.

The co-defendant had opted for civilian representation.  Yes, non-Army lawyers were around. Rumored to be funded by famous Hollywood disidents a group of attorneys were trying to up justice in the military justice system. The young co-defendant’s lawyer wanted to contest the legality of the gate search. He wanted to argue that the Army had no right to screen what material was entering a secured, fortified base in a time of war. I had made an attempt at objecting to the searh as a matter of course without success. So, it was a given that the other soldier would fail.

The war do gooder of course knew this outcome. He told me that his group knew of a possible friendly federal judge in the states that might present an opportunity of success at opening up the law of search and seizure at bases. Why a more relaxed entry at a gate was a good thing was not explained to me. However, something obvious did not seem to concern him. His goal of forum shopping meant that the soldier needed to first be convicted and hauled off to prison. (That’s one way out of the country after a long wait for trial.) Then he’d need to lose his appeals inside the military system before he’d have acrack at any federal court jurisdiction. Perhaps two or three years. It seemed that the young man spending a few years in prison was overshadowed by the activist group’s interest in a cause. Papa always tried to be more practical in helping individuals out of jams. 

I could not speak to or help the soldier at LBJ other than pass on to the Army JAG office that he wanted an interview with a different military lawyer. Which I did and his administrative processing home began thereafter. I have always had a dim view of forum shopping. It is a value taught long ago. But, to an acivist it is a goal to pursue. Thus, many courts today are being flooded by lawsuits that target Trump and his actions in office. I’d prefer a more orderly filing of localized litigation allowing issues to percolate up the chain. Now, nationwide court orders seem to invite chaos. And, my memory of LBJ.