10 U.S.C. § 1168
Section 1168 · Discharge or release from active duty: limitations
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 57 court decisions — leading case Soto v. Commonwealth (2004)
Most recently applied in Labonte v. United States (August 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) A member of an armed force may not be discharged or released from active duty until his discharge certificate or certificate of release from active duty, respectively, and his final pay or a substantial part of that pay, are ready for delivery to him or his next of kin or legal representative.
(b) This section does not prevent the immediate transfer of a member to a facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs for necessary hospital care.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
The new section 1168 of title 10 is transferred from section 1218(a) and (c) of title 10 as being more appropriate in the chapter on separation.
Amendments
1989—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 101–189 substituted “facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs” for “Veterans’ Administration facility”.