10 U.S.C. § 1169
Section 1169 · Regular enlisted members: limitations on discharge
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 52 court decisions — leading case Chambers v. United States (2005)
Most recently applied in Tippins v. United States (March 2024)
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.
No regular enlisted member of an armed force may be discharged before his term of service expires, except—
(1) as prescribed by the Secretary concerned;
(2) by sentence of a general or special court martial; or
(3) as otherwise provided by law.