U.S. Supreme Court to mull time limits on military rape claims

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether military personnel can be prosecuted for rape long after the crime occurred in an appeal by President Donald Trump's administration of a lower court ruling that overturned the rape conviction of an Air Force captain.

The justices will hear the administration's bid to reinstate the conviction of F-16 instructor pilot Michael Briggs after the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the top military appeals court, placed a five-year time limit on filing charges for older rape claims. That court ruled that even though a 2006 change to U.S. military law specified that rape claims can be prosecuted in the armed forces without a time limit, the change did not apply retroactively.