Military Law Blog
Navy Disciplinary Review Board (DRB): What It Means, What Comes Next, and Why It Matters
If you’ve been told you’re going to a Disciplinary Review Board (DRB), your first instinct may be to downplay it. Many active duty sailors assume a DRB is informal, corrective, or simply a warning shot before things return to normal.…
Hard Labor Without Confinement: Court-Martial Punishments:
If you’re facing a court-martial, you’ve probably heard a lot of unfamiliar terms thrown around—confinement, forfeiture, punitive discharges, reduction in pay grade. One punishment that often surprises service members is hard labor without confinement. It sounds old-fashioned, maybe even symbolic.…
Restriction: Court-Martial Punishment
Restriction is one of the most misunderstood punishments available in the military justice system. Many service members associate restriction almost exclusively with non-judicial punishment (NJP)—a command-level disciplinary tool used for minor offenses. That view is incomplete and, for service members…
What Is Insubordination in the Military?
In everyday conversation, people still use the word insubordination to describe refusing orders or talking back to leadership. In modern military justice practice, however, the term is used far less often as a standalone charge. Instead, what most people think…
Trial Counsel: Criminal Prosecutors in Courts-Martial
In the military justice system, no individual has more immediate influence over the direction of a criminal case than the trial counsel. For a service member facing charges, trial counsel is the government’s prosecutor—the attorney responsible for investigating, charging, litigating,…
Extra Duty as Military Punishment
Extra duty is one of the most common disciplinary tools used in the military—and one of the most misunderstood. While many service members treat extra duty as a minor inconvenience or a rite of passage, it is a formal punishment…
What Is Dereliction of Duty?
Dereliction of duty is one of the most commonly charged—and most misunderstood—offenses in military law. For a service member, an allegation of dereliction of duty can arise from something as simple as a missed responsibility or as serious as a…
Court Martial Panel Selection: How it Works
Panel selection is one of the most important, least understood components of the military justice system. In a court-martial, the individuals who sit in judgment—the members of the court-martial panel—hold extraordinary influence over the outcome of the case. They decide…
Article 120b of the UCMJ
Article 120b of the UCMJ is one of the most severe and consequential offenses in the entire military justice system. It governs the law surrounding sexual assault of a child, sexual abuse of a child, rape of a child, and…
Article 120c of the UCMJ
Article 120c UCMJ governs one of the most sensitive and aggressively prosecuted groups of offenses under the entire Uniform Code of Military Justice. It addresses sexual misconduct, indecent exposure, indecent viewing, indecent recording, and visual recording of the private area…