Formal classification of the Fort Hood Massacre as an act of terrorism will open up a can of worms over Nidal Hasan’s entire chain of command all the way up to the Army Chief of Staff who called it “workplace violence”.
Families of Purple Heart recipients killed or wounded that day will be lawyering up & demanding to know why the terrorist Hasan’s superiors did not intervene sooner.
This award gives them legal standing, finally.
A legal action against the U.S. military probably doesn't stand much of a chance of success, since the entire institution operates outside U.S. civil and criminal law in most respects.