Ralph Kohlmann

Ralph H. Kohlmann
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1980-2009
Rank	Colonel

Ralph H. Kohlmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Marine Corps.

For his first seven years as an officer Kohlmann served as a combat engineer. He switched to the Judge Advocate General Corps in 1987.

On December 18, 2005 Kohlmann was announced as a Presiding Officer for the Guantanamo Military Commissions.

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 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.

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