The Trump administration’s decision to use military lawyers to enforce civilian law was found to violate the Posse Comitatus Act in the Northern District of California, but the simple act of using military lawyers as prosecutors in federal courts and judges in immigration cases is alarming, write Professors Lesley Wexler and Tony Ghiotto. In a two-part series for Justia Verdict, they examine the consequences of the increasing use of the military domestically and why such use should be concerning to all Americans.

Writing at Justia Verdict, Professors Lesley Wexler and Tony Ghiotto discuss the latest developments around the Executive Order banning transgender individuals from the United States’ military, including a new Action Memo from the Department of Defense and the Equal Protection aspects of the Talbott v. Trump and Shilling v. United States litigation challenging the ban. “We worry the administration will continue to publicly make attempts to discredit and attack these judges, transgender service members, and any public effort…to oppose the administration’s efforts to ban transgender members,” they write.

“The fact that the President may have his own personal criminal immunity for ordering either the assassination of his rival or a coup does not make these orders lawful. And while military members have a legal obligation to follow lawful orders, they have a similar obligation to disobey unlawful orders,” Professor Anthony Ghiotto writes in a new article published in the NYU Journal of Legislation & Public Policy. Following Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent from Trump v. United States, in which she employs a hypothetical of the President ordering SEAL Team 6 to execute his rival, Ghiotto posits that the military may become the vanguard of a presidential coup, instead of the final check against it.

In a new post on Justia Verdict, Professors Tony Ghiotto and Lesley Wexler do a deep examination of the Prioritizing Military Excellence Order, President Trump’s executive order on transgender individuals in the military. The article seeks to answer whether the order represents a complete transgender service ban or a variation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well as its legal impacts and possible solutions. “The best mechanism to oppose the ban, and to deter future bans, is judicial and will require transgender members to continue leading the efforts for their right to serve,” the authors conclude.

This episode is all about advocacy and what that means for law students and lawyers. We turn the spotlight on the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism and learn about the classes and competitions they offer to help Illinois Law students become the best advocates possible. Guests include Professor Tony Ghiotto, director of the Anderson Center, and third-year students Yev Kozak and Nicole Marcinkus.

In a co-authored blog post for Justia Verdict, Professors Lesley Wexler and Tony Ghiotto explore the significance of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s firing of Judge Advocates General in late February. Were these firings truly unprecedented? What consequences may arise from these firings, whether within military legal practice or how the military fights wars and complies with international law? Do they contribute to an ongoing existential threat to democracy and defense? 

Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy charged with the murder of Sonya Massey, was discharged from the U.S. Army for serious misconduct, according to military records. Professor Anthony Ghiotto, a former Air Force prosecutor, spoke to Illinois Public Media about the case and the relevance of Grayson’s discharge. “A good way of looking at it is, if it would be a misdemeanor in the civilian world, it’s not going to be a ‘serious offense,’” he said.

“It is foundational to our criminal justice system that the government has to prove mens rea,” Professor Tony Ghiotto said on a recent episode of the Litigator Libations podcast. The podcast, he discussed Diaz v. United States, in which the Supreme Court recently ruled on expert testimony and a defendant’s mental state. His segment examined how close an expert may come to providing an opinion on a ultimate issue (such as whether the accused held a specific intent).

From law student to the battlefields of Afghanistan and back to the classroom, this time as a professor, Anthony Ghiotto has blazed a unique path to the College of Law. On the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Rising podcast, he shared his story of joining the Judge Advocate General’s corps after graduating and the wealth of experience he earned as part of the military. Hear more about how his struggles and triumphs helped him get to Illinois, where he serves as teaching assistant professor and director of the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism and trial advocacy.