User blog comment:James12708/Why Exactly is Sheperd on Earth if Arrival Wasn't Completed/@comment-4967682-20121202110330/@comment-2228120-20121202192328

Well, it's not like Hackett is almighty, his decision could simply be overriden by those still above him. Also, during ME1, it was established that his status is sort of dual - while being a Council Spectre, he is still a part of the Alliance and answerable as such. And I doubt that the Council would try to mess with the Alliance's inner affairs once Shepard himself didn't take advantage of his Specter status and turned himself in. No, in this particular case, I believe that Shepard's incarceration can be fully justified - what I do consider lazy writing is the fact that he gets away with working for Cerberus in ME2 way too easily.