10 U.S.C. § 938
Section 938 · Art. 138. Complaints of wrongs
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 130 court decisions — leading case United States v. Stanley (1987)
Most recently applied in Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs v. City of Fort Lauderdale (August 2018)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 10 U.S.C. § 1552 · 10 U.S.C. § 866 · 10 U.S.C. § 855
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.
Any member of the armed forces who believes himself wronged by his commanding officer, and who, upon due application to that commanding officer, is refused redress, may complain to any superior commissioned officer, who shall forward the complaint to the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over the officer against whom it is made. The officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction shall examine into the complaint and take proper measures for redressing the wrong complained of; and he shall, as soon as possible, send to the Secretary concerned a true statement of that complaint, with the proceedings had thereon.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The words “commanding officer” are substituted for the word “commander”. The word “who” is inserted after the word “and”. The word “commissioned” is inserted after the word “superior” for clarity. The words “The officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction” are substituted for the words “That officer” for clarity. The word “send” is substituted for the word “transmit”. The word “Secretary” is substituted for the word “Department” for accuracy, since the “Department”, as an entity, could not act upon the complaint.
Cross References
Article to be explained, see section 937 of this title.