UCMJ Article 94: Mutiny and Sedition

Article 94 covers mutiny, sedition, attempted mutiny, and the failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition. All are punishable by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct. Mutiny by violence or disturbance can be committed by one person acting alone; mutiny by refusing duty, and sedition, require acting in concert with someone else. The intent to usurp or override authority is what separates mutiny from ordinary disobedience.

Mutiny, sedition, and failing to suppress or report them

Under 10 U.S.C. § 894:

• Mutiny is committed by a person who, “with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance.”
• Sedition is committed by a person who, “with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority.”
• Failure to suppress or report is committed by a person who fails to do the utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform a superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of one he knows or has reason to believe is taking place.

Under § 894(b), attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, and failure to suppress or report are all punishable by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

Two kinds of mutiny

The Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 21.c(1), distinguishes them:

• By creating violence or disturbance: “may be committed by one person acting alone or by more than one acting together.”
• By refusing to obey orders or perform duty: requires “collective insubordination,” a combination of two or more persons. That concert “need not be preconceived,” and the insubordination need not be active or violent. It “may consist simply of a persistent and concerted refusal or omission to obey orders, or to do duty, with an insubordinate intent.”

In both, the intent to usurp or override lawful military authority may be “declared in words or inferred from acts, omissions, or surrounding circumstances.” A group refusal without that intent is disobedience, chargeable under other articles, but not mutiny.

Sedition is directed at lawful civil authority, not military authority, and always requires concert of action (¶ 21.c(2)).

Failure to suppress and failure to report

Doing one’s “utmost” to prevent and suppress means taking the measures the circumstances call for, considering the person’s rank, responsibilities, or employment, and “includes the use of such force, including deadly force, as may be reasonably necessary under the circumstances” (¶ 21.c(3)).

For failure to report (¶ 21.c(4)):

• Failing to take “all reasonable means to inform” includes failing to use the most expeditious means available.
• “Reason to believe” can be shown when the known circumstances would have caused a reasonable person to believe a mutiny or sedition was occurring.
• The report goes to a superior commissioned officer in the chain of command.
• “Failure to report an impending mutiny or sedition is not an offense in violation of Article 94,” although it may be dereliction of duty under Article 92.

Mutiny and sedition carry death

Under ¶ 21.d, the punishment for every Article 94 offense is “death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.” Because the offenses are subject to confinement for life, confinement for life without eligibility for parole is also available (10 U.S.C. § 856(c)(6)(A)). Soliciting another to commit mutiny or sedition is punished under Article 82: by the punishment for the offense if it is committed or attempted, and otherwise by up to a dishonorable discharge and 15 years (Article 82, solicitation).

Individual disobedience and riot

An individual’s willful refusal of a superior commissioned officer’s order, without the concert and intent of mutiny, is Article 90. A riot or breach of the peace, without the intent to override military authority or overthrow civil authority, is Article 116.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. § 894, Article 94, Mutiny or sedition (Cornell LII)
• 10 U.S.C. § 856, Article 56, Sentencing (Cornell LII)
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 6.d and ¶ 21

General information about military law, not legal advice for any individual case.