Court Martial Index

A service member facing a general or special court-martial does not start from zero on representation. The right to a fully qualified military defense lawyer, free of charge, is built...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

A service member who pads a travel voucher, keeps drawing housing allowance after moving into the barracks, or runs personal charges on a government card is rarely caught by a...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

A service member accused of a crime and a civilian indicted in a federal district court both face the power of the United States to convict and punish, but the...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

Two questions decide whether a court-martial can hear a case at all, and the answer to the first one carries the rest. Is the accused a member of the armed...

Jun 25, 2026 10 min read

In a civilian felony trial, the roles are familiar: a judge rules on the law, a jury decides the facts, and the two functions almost never blur. A court-martial divides...

Jun 25, 2026 7 min read

A service member who reports misconduct inside a command faces a structural problem that civilian whistleblowers usually do not. The same chain of command that the report may implicate also...

Jun 25, 2026 9 min read

Most challenges to a court-martial travel a predictable road: the trial, then automatic or discretionary review by a Court of Criminal Appeals, then the Court of Appeals for the Armed...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

When a U.S. service member is accused of killing a civilian, abusing a detainee, or executing a prisoner, the charge sheet does not say "war crime." It says murder, or...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

Enlisting does not switch off the Constitution. A service member standing trial by court-martial keeps most of the protections that the Bill of Rights gives any criminal defendant, but several...

Jun 25, 2026 7 min read

For a part-time service member, the single most important fact about military justice is that it switches on and off. An active-duty soldier is subject to the Uniform Code of...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

A service member convicted at a court-martial does not face the same long climb a civilian must make to reach an appellate courtroom. For many sentences the first review happens...

Jun 25, 2026 9 min read

The characterization printed on a DD Form 214 follows a veteran for life, and a punitive discharge from a court-martial closes doors to employment, licensing, and benefits long after the...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

A general court-martial is the most serious trial forum in the American military justice system, the only one that can adjudge the full range of punishment the Uniform Code of...

Jun 25, 2026 7 min read

An officer can be court-martialed for behavior that would draw nothing more than a raised eyebrow if an enlisted member did it, or a civilian. Article 133 of the Uniform...

Jun 25, 2026 7 min read

The punitive articles of the UCMJ name specific crimes: larceny, desertion, assault, disrespect, and dozens more. Yet no statute can anticipate every form of misconduct that might damage a military...

Jun 25, 2026 7 min read

A single number, such as "the conviction rate at court-martial exceeds ninety percent," travels easily and explains almost nothing. The more useful question is not what the figure is but...

Jun 25, 2026 9 min read

The stretch between the opening of a military criminal investigation and the moment charges are formally preferred is where most court-martial outcomes are quietly decided, and it is also the...

Jun 25, 2026 10 min read

For most of the UCMJ's history, there was no "domestic violence" charge at all. A service member who struck a spouse was prosecuted under the same general assault article that...

Jun 25, 2026 10 min read

An accused waiting for a court-martial faces a question the civilian system answers with a single statute: how long can the government take before the case must go forward? Military...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

A service member who reports a toxic commander, suspects contract fraud in a unit, or believes a personnel action was payback for going to Congress faces a basic question: who...

Jun 25, 2026 9 min read

A service member who tells a lieutenant "no" and a group of sailors who barricade themselves below decks and refuse to sail are doing something that looks related, but the...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

When a service member is accused of misconduct that a commander considers minor, the matter often never reaches a courtroom. Instead it is handled through nonjudicial punishment under Article 15...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

Most service members who are forced out of the military for misconduct never sit through a court-martial. They are processed out administratively, through a system that looks and works nothing...

Jun 25, 2026 10 min read

A service member ordered to stand trial by general or special court-martial does not have to find a lawyer, qualify as indigent, or pay a retainer to be represented. The...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read

The two forums are easy to confuse because both are run by the military and both try criminal charges before a panel of officers. They are not, however, two versions...

Jun 25, 2026 8 min read