President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that will radically change the U.S. military’s justice system following reports of multiple sexual harassment cases within the force.
The order issued on Friday formally implements legislation enacted by Congress in 2022 to increase protections for servicemembers, who were previously at the mercy of their commanders in determining whether to take sexual assault accusations seriously.
“These reforms are a turning point for survivors of gender-based violence in the military,” the White House said in a fact sheet outlining the changes. “They fulfill President Biden’s promise to fundamentally shift how the military justice system responds to sexual assault and related crimes, which is something President Biden has prioritized since Day One of this administration.”
This comes after members of Congress have grown frustrated with the growing number of sexual assaults in the military. They argued that commanders were sometimes willing to dismiss charges or incidents in their units in order to protect people suspected of crimes and that using independent lawyers would strengthen prosecutions.
The change was one of more than two dozen recommendations issued in 2021 by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s independent review commission on sexual assault in the military. It was included in the annual defense bill last year.
“We will work with Congress to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice, removing the prosecution of sexual assaults and related crimes from the military chain of command,” Austin said in a statement at the time. He was the first defense secretary to support such a move.
The White House said that the measures “represent the most significant transformation of the military justice system since the UCMJ was established in 1950.”
“The historic reforms announced today will better protect victims and ensure prosecutorial decisions are fully independent from the chain of the command,” they added.
Senior commanders, however, are appalled by the change. They say that the growing number of reported assaults shows that military victims are more willing to come forward, adding that transferring responsibility for discipline away from commanders could weaken their authority and provide troops a chance to circumvent the chain of command, which is critical to combat effectiveness.
