The Generals’ Constitution In Extremis: Civil Rights, Civilian Supremacy, And A National Security Commitment “Most Severely Tested”
Dan Maurer*[This essay is available in PDF at this link] Abstract This article describes the legal confusion that surfaces when a senior military commander dissents from, disobeys, or more offensively defies an apparently lawful order from the commander-in-chief to use force in ways that might check, curb, frustrate, or violate the constitutional liberties of the domestic public. Relying on both hypothetical and historical examples in which the constitutional values of civilian control of the armed forces and domestic civil rights collide, this article suggests that routine reliance on traditional civil-military relations theory and the military’s own criminal law only sets the […]

