Reid v.

Covert
354 U.S. 1 (1957)
Facts: Mrs. Covert killed her husband on an airbase in England. Pursuant to a status-of-forces
executive agreement with England, she was tried and convicted by US court-martial without a
jury trial under the UCMJ. She petitioned a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that the
conviction violated her 5th & 6th Amendment rights to be tried by a jury after indictment by a
grand jury.
Issue: Whether the executive agreement is restrained by constitutional limitations.
Held: Yes. The Constitution in its entirety applies to the trials. Since their court-martial did not
meet the requirements of Art. III 2 or the 5th and 6th Amendments the court was compelled to
determine if there is anything within the Constitution which authorizes the military trial of
dependents accompanying the armed forces overseas. No agreement with a foreign nation can
confer power on the Congress, or on any other branch of Government, which is free from the
restraints of the Constitution.
Justice Black declared: "The concept that the Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections
against arbitrary government are inoperative when they become inconvenient or when
expediency dictates otherwise is a very dangerous doctrine and if allowed to flourish would
destroy the benefit of a written Constitution and undermine the basis of our government."
In general, the president cannot contract away individual constitutional rights. It is within the
Presidents power to enter into these agreements, however, but the agreement cannot conflict
with enacted statute or the constitution.