Saying that an officer must determine the legality of orders and disobey illegal orders is not improper, to say the least of seditious — it is a statement of black-letter law and it is a core principle of the officer training curriculum in every commissioning source of every branch.
On the other hand, it’s very dubious indeed to say that a particular order is illegal, and thus ought to be disobeyed, or that a particular order-giver is prone to illegal orders and thus must be obeyed only with particular circumspection. To prosecute someone successfully I think you’d have to prove that the speaker knew the orders were lawful and intended to cause military disorder in making the statement, or BOTH that the speaker was reckless in respect of the legality of the order AND actually influenced someone to disobey an order.
At this point, Kelly et al. haven’t gotten to that point. Any prosecution of them would quickly, and embarrassingly, fail.
Exactly! It was done for PR to demonstrate how rabidly anti-Trump the six are to the crazies that are now the majority in Ratland. Rocketboy (Kelly) definitely had presidential ambitions its all to establish his “bona fides!’ as a possible Tier 1 Prez candidate. The others are angling for Tier 2 VP, the exception to some extent is Slotkin. Her ego is such she thinks she’s Tier 1 material certainly Tier 2. If they can provoke an over reaction by the administration. They will wrap themselves in the robes of martyrdom.