United States v. Maxwell
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
254 F.3d 21 (2001)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
The United States Navy conducted live-fire military training operations at Camp Garcia on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Raul Maxwell-Anthony (defendant) and other individuals protested the Navy’s use of Vieques by entering Camp Garcia on three occasions without first obtaining permission from the camp’s commanding officer. The United States (plaintiff) charged Maxwell with misdemeanor trespass. In a pretrial motion, Maxwell raised the affirmative defense of necessity. Maxwell argued his trespass onto Camp Garcia was necessary to prevent nuclear submarines off the coast of Puerto Rico from engaging in live-fire military exercises on Vieques and that there was no alternative but to break the law. The government argued that Maxwell failed to prove all elements of the necessity defense. The district court agreed and rejected Maxwell’s defense. Following a bench trial, the district court convicted Maxwell and sentenced him to 30 days in prison. Maxwell appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Selya, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
