Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and other Democratic lawmakers put out a video urging troops to disobey "illegal orders." REUTERS

Mutiny watch: The ‘Illegal Orders’ Minefield

“The law is clear that service members can disobey illegal orders,” explains Joshua Braver at The Wall Street Journal , but with a deep “ambiguity,” as this is a system where “all incentives point toward obedience.”

Disobeying a “lawful order” is “punishable by a dishonorable discharge” and penalties including prison and even “death.”

And if an order is “legally ambiguous,” its legality can only be determined at court-martial.

More: “There is no general, affirmative legal duty to disobey an unlawful order,” and the acclaimed “Nuremberg principle was true for those trials of Nazi officials but has since been narrowed

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