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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 2h

Update: Navy Fed also getting paid.

Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 13h

* trying to see you the concept of a plan for some loitering munitions that are totally going to work and be produced for less than $10k a throw, we swear

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 13h

I love how Krustoffs don’t catch the smoke because they make them square, but Trader Joe’s dares to sell them rounded and will be sued into oblivion.

Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 17h

Bonus for a @djag2.bsky.social citation in the wild!

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 17h

“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”

plus she has to pay the costs of the litigation. 🤣🤣🤣

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 17h

Candace Owens: Australia’s high court backs government decision to deny visa to US rightwinger

Court supports home affairs minister’s 2024 decision to reject visa application for planned speaking tour on character grounds Australia’s high court has unanimously backed the government’s 2024 decision to refuse far-right provocateur Candace Owens a visa to enter the country. The full bench of the court ruled on Wednesday that the minister’s denial did not infringe an implied constitutional freedom of political communication. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 17h

I haven’t read deeply - but would welcome any book recs on the topic!

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 18h

My understanding is 1807 abolition of the trade by parliament led to deployment of the famous West African Squadron, but I’m open to learning RN took action before that.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 18h

Slave trade also generates universal jurisdiction similar to piracy, but is not a subset of piracy. Distinct “enemy of all mankind” offenses, different UNCLOS articles.

UNCLOS Article 99
Prohibition of the transport of slaves
Every State shall take effective measures to prevent and punish the transport of slaves in ships authorized to fly its flag and to prevent the unlawful use of its flag for that purpose. Any slave taking refuge on board any ship, whatever its flag, shall ipso facto be free.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 18h

"Lethality and honor must coexist in a democratic society’s armed forces."

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 19h

I think that's even more tenuous. Troops are exempt/required to work even during a lapse in appropriations.

Maybe if we change facts to a Boland Amendment situation - where Congress has expressly objected versus merely failed to pass appropriations - & you could convince me rogue exec = private.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 19h

Ack you're envisioning a reckoning in a venue where US precedent will be irrelevant... but I think UNCLOS 101 plain reading ("private" vessels, ends) + general state practice/concern for being hoisted by the same petard makes "piracy" an unlikely hook here.

snip from UNCLOS: Article101

Definition of piracy

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 19h

US caselaw breaks the other way - piracy is acts "not taken on behalf of a state."

There's dicta that could support your view that unlawful state actions aren't "public" in a legal sense: "That the perpetrators believe themselves to be serving the public good does not render their ends public."

Snip from INSTITUTE OF CETACEAN RESEARCH v. SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY (9th Cir 2013):
The district court construed “private ends” as limited to those pursued for “financial enrichment.” But the common understanding of “private” is far broader. The term is normally used as an antonym to “public” (e.g., private attorney general) and often refers to matters of a personal nature that are not necessarily connected to finance (e.g., private property, private entrance, private understanding and invasion of privacy). See Webster’s New Int’l Dictionary 1969 (2d. ed. 1939) (defining “private” to mean “[b]elonging to, or concerning, an individual person, company, or interest”). We give words their ordinary meaning unless the context requires otherwise. See Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1, 8–9 (2004); Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 69 (2012). The context here is provided by the rich history of piracy law, which defines acts taken for private ends as those not taken on behalf of a state.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 21h

Piracy typically requires “private ends,” and so excludes State violence.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 21h

I was hoisted by this petard as a young MAJ who firmly believed oplaw uber alles - an adjacent unit SJA threw it out as a solution to a thorny interagency authorities issue, and I’ll be damned if she was not absolutely correct.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 21h

“All law is fiscal law” he muttered to himself, scratching another hash mark into the unseen bricks, joining dozen of its fellow travelers in the darkness.

Distinguished Herbert West Fellow, Miskatonic Institute Gigan @gigansprogress.bsky.social · 4d

"Money Colors Are A Thing" I shriek, as I am walled up like Fortunato

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 22h

Anecdotal: uniformed members who bank with USAA show pending deposits, those who bank with Navy Fed do not.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

“Let the aloha flow through you!”

a man in a hooded robe with the letter o on his chest

ALT: a man in a hooded robe with the letter o on his chest

media.tenor.com

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

Just make sure you have TSAPrecheck or you’ll have to remove the counterweight, lest ye have to pay for a checked bag.

Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

I think that matters on the margins, maybe? But I can promise you US troops doing urban fighting w/ intent to annihilate enemy deliberately hiding among civilians is far from “clean.”

Diminution in language skill/local knowledge, incentives for regional actors probably makes it at best a wash.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

If “clean” means “slightly worse than the worst possible outcome,” sure.

But massive collateral damage & ugly civilian harm is essentially a forgone conclusion in an urban fight against a group that deliberately blends in with civilians.

Agree 🇮🇱 carried it out nearly as badly as possible.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

“Clean” is also probably illusory when you’re fighting guerrillas in a place as dense as Gaza.

If you mean less evidence of genocidal intent/minus the insane rhetoric, agree that was possible… but not w/ BiBi’s coalition of whackadoos.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 1d

The idea a “clean” regime change was possible is interesting, but I think unlikely.

The idea that deploying U.S. troops would have facilitated that outcome strikes me as absolutely off the mark.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 2d

“You lot” is a credited Australianism, acceptable for the sake of allied interoperability.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 3d

Instead of limiting to high 3 medals, maybe throttle back medallic commemoration of routine things.

Medals for valor, excellence, campaigns - handshakes and well wishes for change of station.

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Matt Montazzoli @legalleadtheway.bsky.social · 3d

I'm actually fascinated by the argument that reprogramming proc dollars to funds *ARMY*salaries is un-Constitutional... like, who has standing to assert it's ok to pay Space Force, Marines, Coasties, but not Soldiers?

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