Federal · Title 38 — Veterans’ Benefits

38 U.S.C. § 6105: Forfeiture for subversive activities

Civil

What this law says, in plain English

This statute establishes that individuals convicted of specified subversive offenses forfeit military service benefits, including burial in national cemeteries, effective from the offense date. Benefits are suspended upon indictment and restored only if the President grants a pardon.

Read the full statutory text
Any individual who is convicted after September 1, 1959 , of any offense listed in subsection (b) of this section shall, from and after the date of commission of such offense, have no right to gratuitous benefits (including the right to burial in a national cemetery) under laws administered by the Secretary based on periods of military, naval, air, or space service commencing before the date of the commission of such offense and no other person shall be entitled to such benefits on account of such individual. After receipt of notice of the return of an indictment for such an offense the Secretary shall suspend payment of such gratuitous benefits pending disposition of the criminal proceedings. If any individual whose right to benefits has been terminated pursuant to this section is granted a pardon of the offense by the President of the United States, the right to such benefits shall be restored as of the date of such pardon. sections 894, 904, and 906 of title 10 (articles 94, 104, and 106 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice); sections 175, 229, 792, 793, 794, 798, 831, 1091, 2332a, 2332b, 2381, 2382, 2383, 2384, 2385, 2387, 2388, 2389, 2390, and chapter 105 of title 18; sections 222, 223, 224, 225, and 226 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 ( 42 U.S.C. 2272 , 2273, 2274, 2275, and 2276); and section 4 of the Internal Security Act of 1950 ( 50 U.S.C. 783 ). The Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Homeland Security, as appropriate, shall notify the Secretary in each case in which an individual is convicted of an offense listed in paragraph (1) of subsection (b). The Attorney General shall notify the Secretary in each case in which an individual is indicted or convicted of an offense listed in paragraph (2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b).

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