Federalized National guard troops are under Title 10 Authority.
Under Title 10 USC 890 Article 90: Willfully disobeying a lawful order in wartime is punishable with the death penalty.
With the executive branch claiming wartime powers and the DoJ willing to pursue any claim they want, they could certainly choose to pursue the maximum punishment to make an example out of someone.
The ranks of the JAG and military judges hasn’t been purged yet, so I believe it is very inlikely that a court-marshal would reach this punishment, but these orders aren’t something a Soldier can just walk away from without serious legal and financial repurcussions.
What they do in Chicago matters far more than their presence there. Every Soldier needs to recognize their ultimate purpose is to defend the freedom and liberty of their nation’s citizens. They must have a line in the sand that they will refuse to cross and are willing to die for, but simply deploying to a city to stand outside a federal building is not that line.
They can’t just quit. They’re under a signed contract, which can be penalized with jail time if breached. Refusing orders is also not as simple as it sounds. Each soldier has a duty to refuse an unlawful order. However, if you disobey a direct order, and it is later determined to have been a lawful one, you will now be punished for failing to obey orders, might be a slap on the wrist, might be a dishonorable discharge, or could even be a court martial with jail time.
For the orders part, I believe there is a JAG hotline to call and get a “ruling” or advice. That would in theory take the legal ramifications of the decision off the guardsman. But I don’t know how well that actually works in practice. It is unlikely to be a smooth as it sounds since the person on the phone doesn’t want to put their skin on the line either.
Then fucking quit or refuse the orders.
That seems like an easy thing until you consider:
Federalized National guard troops are under Title 10 Authority.
Under Title 10 USC 890 Article 90: Willfully disobeying a lawful order in wartime is punishable with the death penalty.
With the executive branch claiming wartime powers and the DoJ willing to pursue any claim they want, they could certainly choose to pursue the maximum punishment to make an example out of someone.
The ranks of the JAG and military judges hasn’t been purged yet, so I believe it is very inlikely that a court-marshal would reach this punishment, but these orders aren’t something a Soldier can just walk away from without serious legal and financial repurcussions.
What they do in Chicago matters far more than their presence there. Every Soldier needs to recognize their ultimate purpose is to defend the freedom and liberty of their nation’s citizens. They must have a line in the sand that they will refuse to cross and are willing to die for, but simply deploying to a city to stand outside a federal building is not that line.
They can’t just quit. They’re under a signed contract, which can be penalized with jail time if breached. Refusing orders is also not as simple as it sounds. Each soldier has a duty to refuse an unlawful order. However, if you disobey a direct order, and it is later determined to have been a lawful one, you will now be punished for failing to obey orders, might be a slap on the wrist, might be a dishonorable discharge, or could even be a court martial with jail time.
For the orders part, I believe there is a JAG hotline to call and get a “ruling” or advice. That would in theory take the legal ramifications of the decision off the guardsman. But I don’t know how well that actually works in practice. It is unlikely to be a smooth as it sounds since the person on the phone doesn’t want to put their skin on the line either.