2024 Amendments to the Manual for Courts Martial, United States
Signed December 20, 2024·Joseph R. Biden Jr.·89 FR 105343
Source
Everything on this page is drawn from the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the United States government. Where this page and the source disagree, the source governs.
Plain-language summary
Amends Parts II, III, IV, and V of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, which was originally prescribed by Executive Order 12473, with changes detailed in an attached annex. Also prescribes regulations requiring the randomized selection of qualified personnel as court-martial members, as required by a provision of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. Most amendments take effect immediately, except that changes to specific Rules for Courts-Martial (R.C.M. 908(c)(3), 1205(a), and 1209(a)(1)) take effect December 22, 2024, and a change to R.C.M. 503(a)(1) takes effect December 23, 2024. The order specifies that none of the amendments make previously lawful conduct punishable retroactively, and that ongoing military justice proceedings begun before the relevant effective dates may continue as if the amendments had not been made. It applies to military personnel and the court-martial system operating under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Not written or reviewed by a person. Read the full order below for anything you intend to rely on.
Report a problem with this summary
Legal standing
Not yet published. Court challenges, injunctions and rulings tied to individual orders will appear here once each can be linked to its source record.
Nothing appears in this space without a citation to a court action or a cited precedent. An order with no such record is described as untested, never as likely or unlikely to survive.
Claimed authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. 801-946a), and in order to prescribe additions and amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, prescribed by Executive Order 12473 of April 13, 1984, as amended, it is hereby ordered
Quoted from the order as written. Many orders cite nothing more specific than “the Constitution and the laws”; this reproduces what the order claims, not an assessment of whether it holds.
Disposition
See: EO 12473, April 13, 1984
Compiled after the fact by the National Archives, so recent orders often have none yet. An empty disposition means no record, not no activity.
The order, in full
Executive Order 14130 of December 20, 2024
2024 Amendments to the Manual for Courts Martial,
United States
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including chapter 47 of title 10, United
States Code (Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10
U.S.C. 801-946a), and in order to prescribe additions
and amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United
States, prescribed by Executive Order 12473 of April
13, 1984, as amended, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V of
the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, are
amended as described in the Annex attached to and made
a part of this order.
Sec. 2. With this order, I hereby prescribe regulations
for the randomized selection of qualified personnel as
members of a court-martial to the maximum extent
practicable, pursuant to section 543 of the James M.
Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2023, Public Law 117-263 (10 U.S.C. 825(e)(4)).
Sec. 3. Except as provided in sections 4 and 5 of this
order, these amendments shall take effect on the date
of this order, subject to the following:
(a) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed
to make punishable any act committed or omitted prior
to the date of this order that was not punishable when
committed or omitted.
(b) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed
to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding,
restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges,
trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action
begun prior to the date of this order, and any such
nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint,
preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in
which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed
in the same manner and with the same effect as if these
amendments had not been prescribed.
Sec. 4. The amendments to Rule for Courts-Martial
(R.C.M.) 908(c)(3), R.C.M. 1205(a), and R.C.M.
1209(a)(1) shall take effect on December 22, 2024,
subject to the following:
(a) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed
to make punishable any act committed or omitted prior
to the effective date that was not punishable when
committed or omitted.
(b) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed
to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding,
restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of charges,
trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action
begun prior to the effective date, and any such
nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint,
preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in
which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed
in the same manner and with the same effect as if these
amendments had not been prescribed.
Sec. 5. The amendment to R.C.M. 503(a)(1) shall take
effect on December 23, 2024, subject to the following:
(a) Nothing in this amendment shall be construed to
make punishable any act committed or omitted prior to
the effective date that was not punishable when
committed or omitted.
(b) Nothing in this amendment shall be construed to
invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding,
restraint, preliminary hearing, referral of
charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other
action begun prior to the effective date, and any such
nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint,
preliminary hearing, referral of charges, trial in
which arraignment occurred, or other action may proceed
in the same manner and with the same effect as if this
amendment had not been prescribed.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 20, 2024.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed December 20, 2024. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.