The court martial discharged him for disobeying an order. That is not being disputed. The crux of the matter is that the order was an unlawful one. Any civilian court that agreed to hear the case would have to examine the legality of the order itself, which is probably exactly why no court has taken the case; it would open up quite a can of worms, don't you think.
New didn't miss deployment since his infraction had occured before the unit deployed. He was, I believe, charged with a failure to obey an order. Which, if I recall correctly, is a violation of Article 92 of the UCMJ, one of the punative articles. Punishment is as a court martial may direct. In this case the court martial directed that New be booted out of the Army with a dishonorable discharge.
Again, the fact that he disobeyed an order is not being disputed. The court martial only determined that he disobeyed the order and did not take in to consideration that the order was illegal to begin with. Once again, had the military done otherwise it would have opened up a huge can of worms.
What part of the UN Participation Act specifically are you referring to?
SEC. 6. The President is authorized to negotiate a special agreement or agreements with the Security Council which shall be subject to the approval of the Congress by appropriate Act or joint resolution providing for the numbers and types of armed forces, their degree of readiness and general location, and the nature of facilities and assistance, including rights of passage, to be made available to the Security Council on its call for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security in accordance with article 43 of said Charter.
http://patriotpost.us/histdocs/un_participation_act.asp
Several military and federal courts have ruled that it was a lawful order.
Any civilian court that agreed to hear the case would have to examine the legality of the order itself, which is probably exactly why no court has taken the case; it would open up quite a can of worms, don't you think.
No, I believe that no civilian court has taken up the case because they have no jurisdiction or they have found there is no basis for appeal.
Again, the fact that he disobeyed an order is not being disputed. The court martial only determined that he disobeyed the order and did not take in to consideration that the order was illegal to begin with. Once again, had the military done otherwise it would have opened up a huge can of worms.
Actually they did take that into consideration, and found that New was wrong and that it was a legal order.
SEC. 6....
Read on. "The President shall not be deemed to require the authorization of the Congress to make available to the Security Council on its call in order to take action under article 42 of said Charter and pursuant to such special agreement or agreements the armed forces, facilities, or assistance provided for therein: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as an authorization to tile President by the Congress to make available to the Security Council for such purpose armed forces, facilities, or assistance in addition to the forces, facilities, and assistance provided for in such special agreement or agreements."