玛丽安·豪斯，2023年6月16日
美国宪法第一修正案.S. Constitution is considered to be the most important part of the Bill of Rights. It guarantees citizens the freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, 和 petition. The Constitution restricts the government from taking these rights away from ordinary citizens. 然而, when citizens take a commissioning oath or oath of enlistment into the military, they become subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a set of laws that governs everything from the h和ling of enemy prisoners to the conduct of ordinary soldiers. 莱利·马龙，25岁, a history major at Virginia Military Institute is examining the government policy on servicemembers, 和 how their First Amendment rights have changed from 1900 to the present in his 10-week 夏天 Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) project titled, “True 信仰 和 Allegiance: The First Amendment in the Military.”
马龙, who has a vested interest in military law since he plans to commission into the Army upon graduating, became interested in the subject when he took a class called U.S. 宪法史，由Lt. Col. Mark Boonshoft, associate professor 和 holder of the Conrad M. Hall ’65 Chair in American Constitutional 历史 at VMI. “Before I took the class, I had not been aware of the differences between military 和 civil law. There are a lot of articles in the UCMJ that I didn’t underst和, 所以我开始研究它的历史,马龙解释道.
马龙说, the UCMJ puts restrictions on First Amendment rights such as speech 和 freedom of religion. “Officers can be charged for speaking ill of certain officials, 包括美国总统, 当选的州官员, 以及上级官员. Enlisted personnel can be charged for saying anything that violates ‘good order 和 discipline’ within the military. Such broad 和 restrictive laws would not be permissible in a civilian setting,” he said.
The military places heavy restrictions on fundamental rights for several reasons. It argues that UCMJ laws are fundamental to national security, 并有助于维持军民关系, citing that it is vital the military remains subordinate to the civilian government, preventing conflict 和 a politicized military. Military 和 civilian courts have recently begun calling this reasoning into question.
“I found it amazing that someone off duty can say something political, 像任何一个普通人一样, 但既然他们是兼职军人, they can be punished 和 sentenced to hard labor,马龙说。. Though he concedes charges 和 convictions don’t happen often, 自从现代法庭变得更加宽大, 当这种情况发生时，意义重大. “The most recent example I have looked at so far happened in 2003 when an Army officer refused to deploy for his unit’s assigned rotation to Operation Iraqi Freedom, 和 accused President Bush of starting the war illegally. The officer was charged with speaking ill of an elected official 和 disobeying a direct order.”
More recent cases he is examining include the January 6, 2021, incident at the U.S. 国会大厦, 有很多老兵参加, as well as a smaller group of active or reserve military members 和 national guardsmen. “Some of them were charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer 和 a gentleman or violating the no politics rule, 我想看看这个问题是如何解决的,马龙说。.
Boonshoft who is serving as 马龙’s advisor for the SURI project said, “马龙 identified a question of perennial importance, 但学者们对此研究不足. This research will make an important 和 timely contribution. 马龙 possesses a keen ability to pick up the nuances in judicial reasoning 和 a sharp sense for placing legal changes within their historical context, necessary skills for a project traversing law 和 history.”
马龙 predicts he will have additional questions after the 10-week SURI session is over, so he plans to incorporate the project into his capstone 和 thesis for the Institute Honors program.
马龙 graduated from 费什伯恩 Military School in 2021 in Waynesboro, Virginia. He is the son of Jaime 和 Jerry Allen of Seattle, 华盛顿, 和 the gr和son of Patricia Waldrop of Austin, 德州. He is the training sergeant for VMI’s EMT agency, 道德操守小组的成员, 和 vice president of the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society. Upon graduating, he hopes to become an aviation or infantry officer in the Army. Constitutional history is an area he would like to focus on after his military career.
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