Scout legal powers

Scout Legal Powers
Besides the powers and rights of a normal citizen (traditionally, the right to self defense, and the right to make a citizen's arrest for a crime they have personally witnessed, at the time of the crime), all Scouts have the right to gather evidence (if they maintain a proper evidential chain), the right to requisition materials, including vehicles, in a time of emergency, the responsibility to sit in judgement until a proper judge is available during an emergency, to give testimony without revealing their identity, the right to speak as an expert witness, and the right to declare participation in an emergency (generally used to excuse a Scout from class or work, so they can go deal with said emergency. Employers may not inquire about Scout status, and may not fire a Scout on the basis of that status, or the use of this power). Most of those rights are only available with proper credentials. A Scout may not both give testimony and sit in judgement during the same trial.

High School Scouts have their judgements reviewed after the emergency. While acting in their Scout Personae, they may not be drafted or forced into participating in military service.

In general, a higher rank Scout may serve as a appellate court to a lower Scout's ruling, if the higher scout is not within the same chain of command, and does not know the lower scout in some other personal fashion.

District and Community Scouts, by holding that position, fulfill all requirements needed to sit for the BAR exam (or similar testing mechanism), and thus can gain the right to practice law in any form, assuming all other meritorious requirements (like passing the exam) are met. They may also speak on behalf of another to have them sit the exam, if that is a requirement in the given legal setting. While acting in their Scout Personae, they may not be drafted or forced into participating in military service.

City Scouts may take part in investigations, issue warrants, deputize, and levy fines or punishments, excluding the death penalty, on their own power. These are often reviewed by Grand Jury, and may be appealed as if the City Scout were a lower court. A City Scout may sit as a judge in a Grand Jury or on an appellate court. They may mobilize their local High School and District/Community Scouts in time of emergency. They may be activated for military duty as a special, and on loan, officer, generally at a junior grade rank to the activating officer. (Loaned officers may not be court-martial by the activating organization - while Scouts are expected to follow orders, they cannot be compelled to do so by the activating agency, or restrained for refusing to do so by the same. Scouts will not compromise their ideals just because they are ordered to - something military officers should always remember. A Scout-empaneled court, of course, can restrain and court-marshal an activated Scout - something activated scouts should always keep in mind)

Regional/Area/Nation Scouts may stand up a court and act as judges for international disputes and war crimes. If this is done unilaterally, a special court of appeals may be convened to review the case as needed. When activated for military duty, RAN Scouts are generally set as Senior Staff officers, and all City Scouts in their bailiwick become activated for military service. If a Scout-based appellate court is required, a Planetary Scout from another planet is needed, due to the rules about chain of command judgements.

Planetary Scouts may stand up a court and act as a judge for interstellar disputes and war crimes. They may be activated as a General, Admiral, or similar rank; doing so activates all Justicar for military service. A militarily Active Planetary Scout may be taken as a declaration of war, unless the Scout does so on her own recognizance (and, even then, it's pretty close). If an appeal is required, generally several Planetary Scouts are called in, or one of the three Grand Masters, if any are seated and available.

The 3 Grand Masters are: Grand Justicar, Grand Mediator, and Grand Militant. Currently, none of these positions are filled. Filling any of them requires a majority vote by all Planetary Scouts, and requires the claimant to have preformed an impressive feat in the area of justice, economic or legal mediation, or military action (of note, low body counts are favorable to a Grand Militant's record - most have successfully completed military campaigns that were not only undeniable successes, but had fewer than .1% causality rates on either side - effectively, generals who win bloodless victories through clever schemes and adroit manipulation); specifically, the act must have an impact, for the good, on a galactic scale. In general, the feat in question must be several years old, to accurately gauge it's effect. The longest postponement of a vote for the sake of judging it's outcome was 153 years.