As an understanding of the ramifications of this outcome get through into the Judge Advocate General's office, I believe that is exactly the legal situation with which the military is faced.
The Major did not disobey an order at all--he took access to appropriate legal authority to determine whether the order was lawful. The seminal fact making the order lawful would be a demonstration by the putative CIC that he is Constitutionally eligible to act. The challenge to his authority was based on a simple narrow factual issue--where was he born.
So when the Commander, instead of responding directly with his birthplace, renders the challenge moot by withdrawing the order, it is a reasonable inference that he is in fact not eligible to act.
At that point, military officers who act on the basis of future orders need to be concerned that the legal consequences of their actions no longer rest on the authority of their superiors but on the actor himself--a dangerous position for a military officer.
That in peacetime in the domestic US. What position is the officer in if he is in the field in combat? Almost all of these treaties are couched on reliance on authority of the head of state.
Orders issued on the purported authority of a head of state who is not the head of state because he is not Constitutionally eligible to act as head of state are likely to be viewed as void.
I have been involved with this issue since the beginning over a year ago. Throughout the process, I have often suggested that the end game might well come down to this issue for the military.
As the issue has continued to develop against the obvious backdrop of evidence that Obama was in fact born in Coast Hospital in Mombassa Kenya, we have come to focus on the question of what the Joint Chief's and their counsel are thinking about. It has seemed to me obvious that the ultimate moment of truth was at had and would present the Chief's with a very difficult set of choices.
It's an elegant approach to forcing the issue. The Major had standing by virtue of his membership in the military and being subject to orders from a legitimate Commander in Chief. So many other approaches have failed on the issue of standing.
Thank you for your thoughtful post ... this information was not coming through in my reading, only that he was ordered to deploy and refused, then the rest followed. I appreciate you providing your insights.