{"id":43003,"date":"2021-08-06T22:08:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T22:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/08\/06\/state-guard-units-cant-limit-off-duty-protests-by-their-troops-national-guard-bureau-memo-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:24:35","slug":"state-guard-units-cant-limit-off-duty-protests-by-their-troops-national-guard-bureau-memo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/08\/06\/state-guard-units-cant-limit-off-duty-protests-by-their-troops-national-guard-bureau-memo-says\/","title":{"rendered":"State Guard units can\u2019t limit troops\u2019 off-duty protests by their troops, National Guard Bureau memo says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National Guard Bureau has issued a memo instructing state Guard units to stop applying Defense Department restrictions on protest participation to Guard troops who are not on active federal orders, Army Times has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The July 26 memorandum, signed by Air Force Col. Kevin Mulcahy, NGB\u2019s deputy director for manpower and personnel, was filed as part of the government\u2019s response to a federal lawsuit by Army Capt. Alan Kennedy, a Colorado National Guard lawyer. Army Times obtained the memo through court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2021\/04\/22\/colorado-guard-jag-officer-suing-superiors-over-his-participation-in-blm-protests\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Colorado Guard JAG officer suing superiors over his participation in BLM protests<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Army Capt. Alan Kennedy, a part-time JAG in the Colorado National Guard, is suing his superiors for giving him discipline and reprimands he claims limited his off-duty freedom of speech.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The memo clarifies that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esd.whs.mil\/Portals\/54\/Documents\/DD\/issuances\/dodi\/132506p.pdf\">Defense Department Instruction 1325.06<\/a>, \u201cHandling Dissident and Protest Activities Among Members of the Armed Forces,\u201d does not apply to National Guard troops who are not \u201cin a Title 10 duty status under federal command and control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The memo effectively means that the National Guard can\u2019t restrict what protests its troops attend, save for specific and narrow circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">National Guard troops most frequently serve in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/05\/22\/state-orders-are-a-con-federalizing-the-national-guard-should-be-the-go-to-for-most-missions-moving-forward\/\">Title 32 or state active-duty statuses<\/a>, in which they are under the command and control of their state or, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emacweb.org\/index.php\/training-education\/learn-about-emac-your-discipline\/national-guard\">when the Emergency Management Assistance Compact is activated<\/a>, another state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Title 10 orders are only used for Guard troops in situations that require presidential command and control. This includes mobilizations and deployments ordered by the president, individual volunteer tours with active-duty units, overseas training and certain NGB assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The memorandum has significant ramifications in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/04\/22\/colorado-guard-jag-officer-suing-superiors-over-his-participation-in-blm-protests\/\">Kennedy\u2019s ongoing lawsuit, which began in March<\/a>. The case could also have far-reaching effects on the more than 440,000 members of the National Guard across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>The federal lawsuit<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This March, Kennedy sued his chain of command, claiming it had unconstitutionally restricted his First Amendment rights when Colorado National Guard leaders issued him a pair of reprimands \u2014 one for his participation in a May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, and a second for writing an opinion article in a local newspaper questioning his chain of command\u2019s decision to investigate his protest participation. He also says they filed a negative evaluation as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kennedy was teargassed while participating in what was otherwise a peaceful daytime protest in Denver at the height of the nationwide protest movement in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s death at the hands of police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kennedy\u2019s first reprimand was for violating the Defense Department instruction that NGB now says shouldn\u2019t have applied to him, because he was not in a Title 10 duty status during the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2220\" height=\"1388\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37317\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png 2220w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?resize=300,188 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?resize=768,480 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?resize=1024,640 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?resize=1536,960 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-3.41.50-PM.png.png?resize=2048,1280 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2220px) 100vw, 2220px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Army Cpt. Alan Kennedy of the Colorado Army National Guard poses for a selfie where he was teargassed on May 30, 2020. He is suing his superiors for allegedly restricting his off-duty freedom of speech. (Courtesy of Alan Kennedy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DoDI bans even off-duty troops from participating in protests where \u201cviolence is likely to occur\u201d \u2014 and Colorado National Guard leaders had faulted Kennedy under that premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Initially, a Colorado National Guard investigation found Kennedy had not violated \u201cany regulations, prohibitions, limitations, guidance, standards, policies or federal statute\u201d by participating in the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Col. Charles Beatty, the state\u2019s chief of staff who had ordered the investigation, modified the findings and added a recommendation that Kennedy receive a reprimand for participating in a protest where \u201cviolence was likely to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An investigation ordered by the state\u2019s adjutant general, Army Brig. Gen. Laura Clellan, found that Beatty and Colorado Guard officials had a \u201cgood faith, yet mistaken understanding\u201d of the protest rules in believing they applied to guardsmen not in a Title 10 duty status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs a result it was improper to investigate or reprimand CPT Kennedy for violation of DoDI 1325.06,\u201d Clellan said in the investigation report, which Army Times obtained from court records. \u201cThe Department of Defense\u2019s determination \u2026 was not available to the Colorado National Guard when the DoDI was applied to CPT Kennedy, so I find that command did not commit misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the state has now acknowledged Kennedy was correct that he shouldn\u2019t have been punished for participating in the protest, he is not satisfied with the result. And he is still fighting to have the second reprimand \u2014 which he received for protesting his chain of command\u2019s decision to investigate his protest participation \u2014 and to have the allegedly negative evaluation withdrawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>The path forward<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawyers from the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, representing the Guard and Army leaders, asked a federal judge to dismiss Kennedy\u2019s suit on Monday, according to court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government\u2019s attorneys argue the court can\u2019t consider the issue because the Army hasn\u2019t finished considering Kennedy\u2019s administrative appeals of the second reprimand and the evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Government attorneys also said in their motion \u2014 which Army Times obtained via court records \u2014 that the first reprimand is now moot because it was destroyed after one year, plus the new memorandum clarifying the DoDI\u2019s applicability means that it should not have been issued in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re pleased that the military is conceding that my Black Lives Matter protest participation should never have been investigated or punished,\u201d Kennedy said Thursday in a phone interview with Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But he said he\u2019s trying to make a larger point: that all protest restrictions on off-duty troops are improper and unconstitutional. He pointed to the federal reserve components of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, whose members serve in a Title 10 duty status on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDoes this mean that they\u2019re prohibited from participating in Black Lives Matter protests simply because a general believes that \u2018violence is likely to result?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI could be put on Title 10 orders tomorrow, or be transferred to the Army Reserve. At that point, am I prohibited from protesting racism or writing op-eds about it? That\u2019s why those are constitutional questions we need the court to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kennedy described the Guard\u2019s memo clarifying the applicability of the protest regulations as an \u201c11th-hour memo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt seems like the National Guard wants to make sure that the courts don\u2019t address the constitutional questions while still punishing me for exercising my First Amendment rights.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kennedy \u2014 who served as a presidential elector for Joe Biden in the 2020 Electoral College vote and unsuccessfully ran for the Colorado State Senate in 2018 \u2014 has seen his profile rise in recent months, partially due to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American Bar Association, a professional organization for attorneys, recognized Kennedy as one of the national group\u2019s \u201ctop 40 young lawyers\u201d this year. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanbar.org\/groups\/young_lawyers\/projects\/on-the-rise\/2021-honorees\/alan-kennedy\/\">ABA described him<\/a> as \u201can outspoken advocate for justice\u201d who, through the suit, \u201cdefended the right to protest racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe bottom line is that I don\u2019t lose all of my constitutional rights, simply because I joined the military,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Defense Department instruction on service members&#8217; protest activities does not apply to National Guard troops who are not \u201cin a Title 10 duty status under federal command and control.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":78146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,24,89,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378],"class_list":["post-43003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ZZVQNJG7IRGWFMPX44NYK7HKAE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2021\/08\/06\/state-guard-units-cant-limit-off-duty-protests-by-their-troops-national-guard-bureau-memo-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>State Guard units can\u2019t limit troops\u2019 off-duty protests by their troops, National Guard Bureau memo says - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Defense Department instruction on service members&#039; protest activities does not apply to National Guard troops who are not \u201cin a Title 10 duty status under federal command and control.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State Guard units can\u2019t limit troops\u2019 off-duty protests by their troops, National Guard Bureau memo says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Defense Department instruction on service members&#039; protest activities does not apply to National Guard troops who are not \u201cin a Title 10 duty status under federal command and control.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/08\/06\/state-guard-units-cant-limit-off-duty-protests-by-their-troops-national-guard-bureau-memo-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Air Force TImes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-06T22:08:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T03:24:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Davis Winkie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Davis Winkie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" 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