Fact check: Biden can't dishonorably discharge troops for refusing COVID-19 vaccine

The claim: President Joe Biden ordered dishonorable discharges for 46% of troops refusing the COVID-19 vaccine

A widespread claim on social media suggests U.S. service members who refuse to comply with the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccine mandate may soon face reprimand courtesy of President Joe Biden.

“Biden Orders Dishonorable Discharge for 46% of Troops Who Refuse Vaccine,” reads text in a Sept. 29 Instagram post. Another version of the post received more than 5,000 likes in five days before it was deleted.

It's a screenshot of a now-deleted Sept. 23 article from blogger Sandra Rose.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an Aug. 24 memo that COVID-19 vaccinations would be mandatory for service members, writing that the country needs a “healthy and ready force.” Four senators responded by introducing a bill that would prohibit the Department of Defense from dishonorably discharging service members who refuse vaccination.

The White House said in a statement that it “strongly opposes” the bill. But it did not threaten dishonorable discharges for service members who haven't received the shot, as other independent fact-checking organizations have reported.

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“The president has absolutely no authority to order a service member dishonorably discharged,” Richard Rosen, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University, told USA TODAY in an email.

Rose told USA TODAY she is "not a trained journalist" and that readers view her blog for "entertainment and gossip," not news. She declined to comment further.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the claim for comment.

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Biden can't order dishonorable discharges, experts say

The Biden administration hasn't proposed dishonorably discharging service members who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. But even if it did, experts say the president doesn't have that authority.

Rosen said only a general court-martial, the military’s highest level trial court, can sentence service members to dishonorable discharge. If a service member is found guilty in a trial, the court-martial is still not obligated to dishonorably discharge them.

Dwight Stirling, CEO of the Center for Law and Military Policy think tank, said in an email that a service member’s refusal to get vaccinated would likely result in "adverse administrative action." That could include: a written reprimand, a derogatory comment in a performance evaluation, a demotion or – “in the most extreme instances” – an involuntary discharge.

There are five types of discharge a service member can receive upon separation from the military, Stirling said: honorable, general, other-than-honorable, bad conduct and dishonorable. The last two can only be issued via conviction by a court-martial.

Stirling said while it's not impossible for a service member to face a court-martial for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, it's unlikely.

“In the unlikely event that a service member is involuntarily discharged via administrative action for refusal to take the vaccine, he would most (likely) receive one of the first three types of discharge, most likely an other-than-honorable,” Stirling said. “An other-than-honorable discharge, while not something any service member wants as it is analogous to being fired, is a far cry from a dishonorable discharge, which is analogous to a felony conviction.”

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Lindsay Cohn, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, agreed it is unlikely troops would be court-martialed for refusing the vaccine, unless there were "exacerbating circumstances" – like a service member trying to convince others to disobey.

"The military tends to prefer to resolve issues at the lowest effective level, and will elevate to court-martial only if they have no other choice," Cohn said in an email. "Could the president order them to court-martial everyone who refused the vaccine? Yes, but there is no good reason to do so."

A Pentagon spokesperson told USA TODAY in an emailed statement that the claim in the social media posts is false. USA TODAY reached out to the White House for comment.