Braxton Taylor
During his January confirmation hearing, Dan Driscoll dismissed the idea that President Donald Trump would issue an unlawful order, but said he wouldn’t follow one anyway.
If such a situation does arise, the Army veteran who won Senate confirmation on Tuesday will be sorting through his options with a lawyer hand-picked by the Trump administration, which fired the service’s top Judge Advocate General on Friday.
The Trump administration is searching for a replacement who won’t be a “roadblock,” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put it on Sunday.
“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” Hegseth said two days earlier in a statement announcing his intent to replace not only the services’ judge advocates general, but the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force.
Legal and military experts expressed concerns that the unprecedented purge would chill not only current military leaders, but their possible successors.
Mike Smith, a retired rear admiral who leads the bipartisan National Security Leaders for America, noted in a Friday statement that military leaders are constitutionally bound to follow legal orders as policies change from one administration to the next. The flag and general officers appear to have been fired because they followed Biden-administration orders to promote diversity in the military, efforts that Trump and Hegseth are working to root out.
“This purge of senior leadership, however, will force current and future military leaders to consider whether following a lawful order today will get them fired by a future president, creating immense tension in the chain of command,” Smith added.
Hegseth was asked about this chilling effect in an appearance Sunday on Fox News.
“Is there room in military leadership for those who have loyalty to President Trump, but to those who feel like that could be in conflict at some point to the Constitution?” asked host Shannon Bream.
Hegseth dismissed the question as a mischaracterization of the administration’s intent, adding that it’s his understanding that top JAGs have been perpetuating “the status quo,” and that he plans to “open up those positions to a broader set, in a merit-based process, to find the best lawyers possible.”
The Senate confirmed Driscoll with a comfortable 66-28 majority, with a number of Democrats crossing party lines to support the former Army lieutenant.
One of those was Sen. Richard Blumental, D-Conn., who had read a statement in support of Driscoll at his Jan. 30 hearing.
“As a lawyer, we follow the facts and the law, and that’s what Dan Driscoll will do as secretary of the Army,” Blumenthal said.
Trump’s Navy secretary pick, financier John Phelan, will sit for Senate questioning on Thursday. The Senate Armed Services Committee hasn’t yet scheduled a hearing for Air Force secretary nominee Troy Meink, a former National Reconnaissance Office deputy director.
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