I know a guy who is a mid-level officer for a National Guard unit. He spent six months in Iraq a while back.
His wife is a radical conservative Christian. Unfortunately, I get mass-mailing emails sent out by her that are just completely over the top anti-gay and anti-Obama. She has claimed that Obama isn’t a US Citizen, that he’s a Muslim, that he’s a Traitor, that he is attempting to bring Sharia Law to the USA. I’ve gone so far as to set up mail rules to automatically delete anything she sends to me that contains “FW”, Fwd" “Obama” or a couple of other things.
My question(s) is/are: Can her husband be subject to any form of military discipline, directly or indirectly, because his wife is slandering his Commander-in-Chief? Would this be viewed as acceptable or excusable by his military superiors because it is his wife and not him?
Not a lawyer here…but I can’t see any way that he could be liable for his wife’s emails. If they were sent from a military computer, or server, or if they were sent over his signature, with some indication of his rank then maybe. But as long as they’re her effort and hers alone, then I wouldn’t think so.
If 'twere me, I’d just block any and all mail from her and be done with it.
SS
If, by indirectly, you’re asking, “can his wife’s political views somehow affect his chances for promotion or getting a really nice post?” then yes, it could happen that somewhere down the line someone might decide your friend’s wife might not be a good fit in the military culture.
But that’s not unique to the military. I know of a few corporate cultures where the spouse’s actions could have an effect on a person’s chance for advancement.
Maybe, just maybe, it might affect your friend getting a security clearance. I don’t know.
As an officer you’re expected, nay required, to ensure your dependents don’t discredit the service. I knew several Captains & Majors who had spouse problems which got out of hand & did harm to the officer’s career.
Ending up on charges over it would be pretty incredibly rare. But if this woman graduates to hating Obama so bad she starts threatening him, it won’t be long before the Secret Service wants to talk to both of them. And if she’s using a computer nominally under his control, well if somebody wanted to make an example they’d probably have sufficient ammunition.
Agreed he’s not in legal trouble, if it gets no worse than this, but it’s not a career enhancer by any means, esp. if she’s sending this glurge to those in his chain of command, or their spouses.
To be more specific, the prohibitions on using contemptuous language toward political leaders arise from the UCMJ, which is applicable to the officer but not (to the best of my knowledge) to the spouse.
Military officers give up that right to some extent when they volunteer, and talking shit about your commanding officers is an offense under the UCMJ. See 10 USC § 888, “Contempt towards officials.”
Obviously, the officer’s wife is not subject to the UCMJ and is free to hurl offensive epithets at the president all she likes.
That’s the legal side of the question. Other posters are correct that an officer’s wife’s misbehavior can have social consequences. If you’re on a promotion board and you’ve got a dozen officers up for one senior officer position, are you going to promote the guy whose wife is a known nutter who might say something idiotic to a general or the civilian leadership? Probably not.
There are Articles 133 (“Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer”) and 134 ("General Article) that would cover something like that. They’re used as catch-alls for such behavior.
Mr. Bumble is informed that “the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction”.
Mr. Bumble replies “If the law supposes that … the law is a [sic] ass…”
Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
The law has taken this logic to heart over the years.
That’s not slander, but libel. (Slander=spoken, libel=literature.)
And maybe not even that. Public figures have a much higher burden to prove libel. It’s pretty much assumed that a person seeking or serving in public office is going to get a lot of abuse – it comes with the territory. Also, libel involves malicious publication of an untrue statement, knowing it to be untrue. That probably can’t be proven for this crazy woman – she probably believes that it is true. (And likely will continue to believe it, regardless of the facts proving otherwise.) Finally, Obama would have to prove damages – how did her sending this out to her relatives cause him financial damages?
And finally, we have long moved away from the legal concept that a husband controls all activities of his wife, and is responsible for any misdeeds she may do.