Cite as: 510 U. S. 163 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Appellate judges may be commissioned officers or civilians, but each must be a member of a bar of a federal court or of a State's highest court. Ibid. The judges are selected and assigned to serve by the appropriate Judge Advocate General. Ibid. Like military trial judges, appellate judges do not serve for a fixed term. There are presently 31 appellate military judges.
Atop the system is the Court of Military Appeals, which consists of five civilian judges who are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for fixed terms of 15 years. Arts. 67, 142, UCMJ, 10 U. S. C. §§ 867, 942 (1988 ed., Supp. IV). The appointment and tenure of these judges are not at issue here.
I
The Appointments Clause of Article II of the Constitution reads as follows:
"[The President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments." U. S. Const., Art. II, § 2, cl. 2.
We begin our analysis on common ground. The parties do not dispute that military judges, because of the authority and responsibilities they possess, act as "Officers" of the United States. See Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U. S. 868 (1991) (concluding special trial judges of Tax Court are officers); Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 126 (1976) ("[A]ny appointee exercising significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States is an 'Officer of the United States,' and must,
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