United States v. Marcum, just decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, (1) declines to decide whether the Lawrence v. Texas right to sexual autonomy generally applies to members of the armed forces, and (2) holds that a noncommissioned officer can be punished for engaging in nonforcible oral sex with a subordinate.
Though the allegations in the case involved nonforcible but nonconsensual sex (the defendant was supposedly performing oral sex on the subordinate as the subordinate was waking up), I don’t believe the military verdict specifically found absence of consent. Therefore, as I read it, the court’s reasoning focused on the hierarchical relationship between the parties rather than absence of consent, and is thus generally applicable to any oral or anal sex (heterosexual or homosexual) between a defendant servicemember and another servicemember over whom the defendant has supervisory authority.
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