Court Martial Index

Choosing a military defense attorney means making up to three decisions under Article 38(b) of the UCMJ, which applies at a general or special court-martial and at an Article 32...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

The convening authority is the commander empowered to create a court-martial: to refer charges to it, detail its members, approve some pretrial matters, and act on the result within statutory...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

A court-martial is a criminal trial: the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and a conviction at a special or general court-martial can bring confinement and a punitive...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

The Article 31(b) warning is the UCMJ's rights advisement: before anyone subject to the UCMJ questions an accused or suspect in an official law-enforcement or disciplinary capacity, that person must...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

The decisions that set the basic rules of military law are mostly Supreme Court cases about the reach and legitimacy of courts-martial: Solorio v. United States (1987), which made jurisdiction...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Military judges are commissioned officers without life tenure or salary protection, so their independence rests on structure instead. By statute, a military judge of a general or special court-martial is...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Beyond the sentence, a court-martial can affect veterans benefits, firearms rights, sex offender registration, security clearances, and, for non-citizens, immigration status. Each consequence has its own trigger. Some turn on...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

The UCMJ reaches improper relationships in three ways. Fraternization is an Article 134 offense listed in the Manual for Courts-Martial: a commissioned or warrant officer who knowingly fraternizes with an...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Preferral is the sworn accusation: a person subject to the UCMJ signs the charges and specifications under oath, stating personal knowledge or investigation and belief that they are true (Article...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Article 112a of the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. § 912a) makes it an offense to wrongfully use, possess, manufacture, distribute, import, export, or introduce onto military property a controlled substance. The...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Judge advocates, the uniformed lawyers of each service, serve in the court-martial's legal roles: trial counsel, defense counsel, special trial counsel, military judge, and the staff judge advocate who advises...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

A military judge is detailed to every general and special court-martial and "shall preside over each open session" (Article 26(a)). The judge rules on all legal questions and motions, holds...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Military appellate courts can issue extraordinary writs, such as mandamus, prohibition, habeas corpus, and coram nobis, under the All Writs Act, which lets courts established by Congress issue "all writs...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

At courts-martial, the attorney-client privilege is Military Rule of Evidence 502. It lets the client refuse to disclose, and prevent others from disclosing, confidential communications made to obtain legal services....

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

A servicemember at court-martial keeps the core protections of a criminal defendant, though several take a different form. The Fifth Amendment's grand jury clause expressly excludes "cases arising in the...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

A service member accused of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault can face two different protective orders. A military protective order (MPO) is a commander's order to that service member;...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

Drunken or reckless operation of a vehicle, aircraft, or vessel is Article 113 of the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. § 913), not Article 111, which since January 1, 2019 covers leaving...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Domestic violence is a separate UCMJ offense, Article 128b, added by the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (Pub. L. 115-232, August 13, 2018) and effective January 1, 2019. It covers...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

A special court-martial is the intermediate court-martial: a military judge with four members, or a military judge alone, trying noncapital offenses and, under presidential regulations, some capital offenses, though it...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

The UCMJ goes wherever the service member goes: Article 5 says, in full, "This chapter applies in all places." Deployment changes the practicalities, not the law: where a trial can...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

A court-martial adjudicates only the service member's case, but the sentence reaches the household through pay and status. Confinement over six months, or a shorter term with a punitive discharge,...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

What can change after a court-martial discharge depends on which court-martial imposed it. A discharge review board (DRB) can review a punitive discharge from a special court-martial, but only for...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

An Article 32 preliminary hearing must be held before charges can be referred to a general court-martial, unless the accused waives it and the referral authority agrees. Its purpose is...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

One statutory source of military justice statistics is the annual reporting the UCMJ requires: the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and each Judge Advocate General must report to...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

The UCMJ has no single "cybercrime" article. Technology-related misconduct is charged under whichever article fits the conduct: Article 123 for offenses against government computers, Article 117a for distributing intimate images,...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read