Also known as: mutinies · mutinous · mutineer · mutineers · rebellion · insurrection
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An insurrection or insubordination by members of the armed forces against their commanding officers. It consists of creating violence or disturbance or refusing orders in concert with others, done with the intent to usurp or override lawful military authority.
Maurice Marshall, a naval petty officer, coordinated with fellow sailors to lock the bridge and refuse all commands from the captain after learning of a disputed deployment order. The crew held the vessel for twelve hours before higher command intervened. Federal authorities later invoked emergency powers to detain participants without immediate judicial review, citing the organized refusal as a direct challenge to military discipline.
Monica Morgan printed and distributed pamphlets at a military base calling on enlisted personnel to ignore deployment orders and seize control of their units. Base commanders treated the circulation as an attempt to foment mutiny and arrested her under federal sedition statutes. The prosecution focused on whether the leaflets created a clear risk of actual disturbance among the troops.
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Miranda Morales and several soldiers formed a clandestine cell that trained members to override base security and assume command during a scheduled exercise. Prosecutors charged the group with conspiring to commit mutiny based on recorded meetings and seized plans. The court examined whether the agreement alone satisfied the intent element even before any overt act occurred.
Mina Mehta addressed a crowd outside a military recruitment center and urged current service members to rise up against their officers that same evening. Although the speech used strong language, no immediate violence followed and no service members acted on the call. The state charged Mehta with inciting mutiny, but the court assessed whether the words were likely to produce imminent lawless action.
Michelle Murphy, the civilian wife of an army sergeant stationed overseas, was accused of assisting her husband in a planned takeover of their post. Military authorities convened a tribunal to try her for mutiny-related offenses despite the availability of civilian courts. She challenged the tribunal's jurisdiction, arguing that her civilian status barred military adjudication.
Mariam Mansour, a defense contractor employee, led a work stoppage at a critical munitions plant that the military viewed as an incipient mutiny by civilian support staff. The President responded by ordering federal seizure of the plant to restore production. The action raised questions about the scope of executive power to address organized refusals that threatened military supply lines.
The prosecution must show either violence or a disturbance or concerted refusal to obey orders, together with the specific intent to usurp or override lawful military authority. Concerted action is not required when a single actor creates the violence or disturbance. Both mutiny and failure to prevent or report it are treated as serious military offenses.
Supporting sources
The Constitution permits suspension only in cases of rebellion or invasion when public safety requires it. Mutiny by armed forces may supply the factual basis for finding a rebellion, but the suspension decision remains subject to the constitutional trigger and cannot rest on ordinary criminal conduct alone.
Supporting sources
Advocacy of mutiny receives protection unless the speech is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to do so. Abstract calls or historical discussion do not lose protection even if they express approval of past mutinies.
Civilians generally may not be tried by military tribunal for mutiny when civilian courts remain open and functioning. Military jurisdiction over civilians is limited to narrow circumstances such as actual closure of civil courts or active battlefield conditions.
…agents of the established lawful government of Rhode Island, which State was then under martial law to defend itself from active insurrection; that the plaintiff was engaged in that insurrection; and that they entered under orders to arrest the plaintiff. The case arose "out of the unfortunate political differences which agitated…