10 U.S.C. § 1181
Section 1181 · Authority to establish procedures to consider the separation of officers for substandard performance of duty and for certain other reasons
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Sawyer v. United States (1991)
Most recently applied in Brezler v. Mills (December 2016)
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) Subject to such limitations as the Secretary of Defense may prescribe, the Secretary of the military department concerned shall prescribe, by regulation, procedures for the review at any time of the record of any commissioned officer (other than a commissioned warrant officer or a retired officer) of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, Regular Marine Corps, or Regular Space Force to determine whether such officer shall be required, because his performance of duty has fallen below standards prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, to show cause for his retention on active duty.
(b) Subject to such limitations as the Secretary of Defense may prescribe, the Secretary of the military department concerned shall prescribe, by regulation, procedures for the review at any time of the record of any commissioned officer (other than a commissioned warrant officer or a retired officer) of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, Regular Marine Corps, or Regular Space Force to determine whether such officer should be required, because of misconduct, because of moral or professional dereliction, or because his retention is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security, to show cause for his retention on active duty.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2021—Pub. L. 116–283 substituted "Regular Marine Corps, or Regular Space Force" for "or Regular Marine Corps" in subsecs. (a) and (b).
1984—Pub. L. 98–525 substituted "Authority to establish procedures to consider the separation of officers for substandard performance of duty and for certain other reasons" for "Authority to convene boards of officers to consider separation of officers for substandard performance of duty or for certain other reasons" in section catchline.
Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 98–525 amended subsecs. (a) and (b) generally, substituting "Subject to such limitations as the Secretary of Defense may prescribe, the Secretary of the military department concerned shall prescribe, by regulation, procedures for the review at any time of the record" for "Under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the military department concerned may at any time convene a board of officers to review the record".
Effective Date of 1984 Amendment
Pub. L. 98–525, title V, §524(b)(3), Oct. 19, 1984, 98 Stat. 2524, provided that: "The amendments made by paragraphs (1) and (2) [amending this section and the analysis to this chapter] shall take effect on the first day of the first month that begins more than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 19, 1984], but shall not apply to any case in which, before that date, a board of officers has been ordered to convene under the provisions of section 1181 of title 10, United States Code, as in effect before that date."
Effective Date
Section effective Sept. 15, 1981, but the authority to prescribe regulations under this chapter effective on Dec. 12, 1980, see section 701 of Pub. L. 96–513, set out as an Effective Date of 1980 Amendment note under section 101 of this title.
Transition Provisions Under Defense Officer Personnel Management Act
For provisions to prevent extinction or premature termination of rights, duties, penalties, or proceedings that existed or were begun prior to the effective date of Pub. L. 96–513 and otherwise to allow for an orderly transition to the system of officer personnel management put in place under Pub. L. 96–513, see section 601 et seq. of Pub. L. 96–513, set out as a note under section 611 of this title.