Ralph Kohlmann

Infobox military person name = Ralph H. Kohlmann image = caption = death_date = birth_place = Paterson, New Jersey is an American lawyer and retired United States Marine Corps officer.

Education Raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, Kohlmann is a 1976 graduate of Ramapo High School. + Education

On Friday January 6, 2006 the Department of Defense officially appointed Kohlmann to preside over Binyam Mohammed's military commission. In its ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld the United States Supreme Court ruled that President George W. Bush lacked the constitutional authority to create military commissions.

The Supreme Court had ruled that the United States Congress did have the constitutional authority to create military commissions, and Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 a few months later, re-instituting military commissions very similar to the earlier presidentially authorized commissions.

On December 13, 2007, The New York Times reported that Kohlmann was appointed to serve as a Chief judge by the Office of Military Commissions. The initial lack of explanation triggered commentators to question Brownback's firing. Captain Andre Kok, a spokesperson for the Office of Military Commissions, claimed there had been "a mutual decision between Col. Brownback and the Army that he revert to his retired status when his current active-duty orders expire in June."

Commenting on this issue, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed to Brownback's decision to wait until the Prosecution complied with his order to make public Khadr's detention records—which may have substantiated his claims his incriminating statements were the product of abuse. They wrote the Pentagon "is unwilling to let judges exercise independence if it means a ruling against the government."

In writing about Kohlmann's reassignment of the Khadr case, The Washington Post asked readers to:

Imagine if, during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Judge Lance Ito ordered the district attorney's office to hand over DNA samples and logs of O.J.'s stay in county jail after his arrest. Then imagine that the prosecutors refused to do so. And that, instead of being fined for contempt of court (or thrown in jail themselves), these same prosecutors somehow got their boss to get Ito tossed off the bench. And then the D.A.'s office worked behind the scenes to replace Ito with a more, shall we say, compliant judge.

Marine Corps Retirement In November 2008, Department of Defence officials announced that Kohlmann was relinquishing his duties as the Military Judge in the military commissions of the 9-11 hijackers. Due to his impending retirement, Kohlmann detailed Colonel Stephen Henley, U.S. Army, to replace him as the Military Judge in the 9-11 cases. Kohlmann continued to serve as the Chief Judge of the Military Commissions until December 2008. He was succeeded in that position by Colonel James Pohl, U.S. Army. Kohlmann accepted a position as a civilian attorney in the Department of the Navy Office of General Counsel in January 2009.

Civilian life

At it 2012 annual meeting the American Bar Association hosted a presentation entitled "The Renewed Trials by Military Commission Under the Obama Administration: An Historical Perspective". Kohlmann and several other current and former key figures in the military commission system participated in the presentation.