The Uniform Code of Military Justice is Neither Uniform, or Justice, Part III

The Chevron decision opens the door for justice to enter the military.

By Rich Kozlovich

Over the last couple of years I've been involved in discussions regarding military justice, and as I've often stated, and written (Here, and Here), "the Uniform Code of Military Justice is neither uniform,nor is it justice.   

When serving as an enlisted man in the military it becomes abundantly clear the system is rigged against you.  And truth be told, given that so many military people are in their late teens or early twenties, there's a degree of understandably for that.  They rig the system to keep all the wild impulses of all those testosterone filled young men under control.  But it's not uniform, nor is it justice.  Mostly, it's big egos, bad attitudes, and politics.   

I served, I hated military life, and l despised the officers. If they tried to pull the crap they get away in the military in the real world they'd get smacked in mouth.  I still despise the officers, and given what's going on in America's military shows they deserve to be despised.  They weren't treasonous then as they are now, but that's only because the ground wasn't fertile for treason as it is now.   And that permeates military justice at all levels.  Some people are special, and some aren't, especially when it involves some officers.

A general kicks off a plane between 50 and 100 people, some of whom were most likely killed, to bring back a war trophy, all of which was against regulations, and nothing is done.   All par for the course with the upper ranks of the military.  An enlisted man would be been thrown in prison.

It's rigged, and I've often cited the movie "A Few Good Men", as the example.  Another great example was a far less known movie with Robert Mitchum, A Man in the Middle.  Not as well known as A Few Good Men, but it was insightful, it was disturbing, and it was thought provoking, specially for that time frame, which is why I remember it so well. 

The brass wanted a man found guilty of murder, of which he is, but there's only one problem.  He was nuts.   While he's clearly insane they rig the evidence to make it look otherwise in order to find him guilty for political expediency.  Not insane, guilty!   But the defense council refused to go along with that, and it's made clear in the movie his decision to refuse to go along to get along will impact his military future.   That's the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

On July 28, 2024, Chase Spears published this article, With Chevron Dead, It’s Time to Challenge the Feres Doctrine:

A 1950 Supreme Court ruling in Feres v. United States, this dark precedent prevents military members from suing the U.S. Government for injuries incurred on active duty. With the exception of pharmaceuticals that produce Covid gene therapy shots, no other line of work is afforded such protections.  Thus, military commanders have been legally shielded from the consequences of their decisions over American citizens in the ranks for over seven decades now. 

In a rare moment of judicial sanity, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Feres Doctrine does not prevent a military member from suing another military member for committing sexual assault, the judges noting that “we are confident in our determination that this act of alleged sexual assault was not incident to military service.” This came the year after the Supreme Court refused to hear a case involving a woman who was raped during her time as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy.............

When the rights of military members are violated, they have virtually no recourse within the system, despite the significant portion of taxpayer resources used to fund a litany of investigative agencies. The military service branches promulgate an armada of police and criminal investigative commands to employ against military members, an aura of complete control always being dangled above their heads to encourage compliance. 

In theory, the host of Inspector General (IG) offices across the military command structure exist to hold abusive military authorities accountable. But the IG has no power to act. Its agents merely investigate and report to commanders, who are often the perpetrators of injustice against their subordinates. It takes the exceptionally rare event (usually of sexual or fiscal nature) for higher-level commanders to hold other commanders to account for abuse of authority or deprivation of rights. 

But even these kind of cases have been so badly bungled by this generation’s military brass that congress intervened in 2023 to remove military commanders’ authority to adjudicate accusations of sexual abuse, and other serious crimes. Even in the rare cases where a commander’s injustice is overturned by the military or civil legal system, the offending commander suffers no accountability, no repercussions for the unlawful suffering he or she caused to a fellow citizen in uniform. Thus totalitarian-minded commanders have little reason to worry. If they lose an ill-brought case, they won’t lose rank or position for it.

Not one bit of this has a Constitutional basis for the Feres decision by the Supreme Court.  As has been presented everything is rigged.  All smoke and mirrors to hide the fact military justice is an oxymoron, but now with Chevron overturned it's time for Feres to also be overturned.