The Military May Find Itself in an Impossible Situation

New York Times

a day ago

Would a military officer disobey a lawful but unethical order — unethical in the sense that it violates the officer's professional code? We may be on the verge of finding out.
The Trump administration has sent Marines to the Los Angeles area to join the National Guard troops already there. At the moment, the Marines have been deployed to help protect 'federal functions and property,' as President Trump's memorandum specifies — not to engage in broader domestic policing. But that could quickly change.
As a general matter, if the president were to order members of the military to engage in domestic policing, the order would almost certainly be legal. Not only does the president have constitutional authority to protect federal property and functions, but the Insurrection Act of 1807 also sets a very low bar for deploying the military for domestic law enforcement. Furthermore, military ethics dictate that officers must obey lawful orders. All this suggests that officers should comply if they are ordered to engage in domestic policing.
If the president were to order officers to engage in domestic policing that was unnecessary (because it could be adequately handled by local law enforcement), politically partisan or reckless, the order would still almost certainly be legal — but according to the officers' professional code, it would also be unethical. And military ethics dictate that officers should reject unethical orders.
Military officers in such a situation would be mired in a contradiction: Their professional duty would compel both compliance and defiance.
Military professional ethics require nonpartisanship, so that the military does not become a political tool and jeopardize its aim of serving the national interest. Those same ethics also strive to keep the military's conduct limited to its area of expertise — namely, warfighting. The military's core competence is defeating enemies in mortal combat; for soldiers, Marines and sailors, a kill is often a victory. The same cannot be said for domestic policing, where the hope is to minimize the use of lethal force.
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