In the weeks after a widely shared video circulated online where politicians urged servicemembers to refuse illegal orders, a separate campaign began placing billboards near Florida military communities with a shorter message: “Obey Only Lawful Orders.” The billboard effort, backed by Defiance.org and Whistleblower Aid, frames itself as a practical reminder of existing military law while directing servicemembers to outside resources and hotlines.
The campaign publicly ties the placements to servicemembers connected to U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa and U.S. Southern Command in Doral.
Public-facing campaign materials describe the effort as a joint initiative combining billboards with posters and digital outreach and pointing servicemembers to a web portal for guidance and referrals.
A separate report describing the Florida rollout states the billboards were placed near MacDill Air Force Base and near installations in/near Doral. The initial effort is a paid campaign aimed at educating troops about “manifestly unlawful orders” and linking them to independent support.
Who Is Behind the Billboard Campaign
The billboard effort is being run through a partnership between Defiance.org and Whistleblower Aid. Defiance.org describes itself as a non-stock organization and identifies its core leadership as Miles Taylor and Xander Schultz on its public “About” page. Taylor previously served as a chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security before moving into advocacy, writing, and public commentary, as reflected in his publicly documented background. Defiance.org describes Schultz as the founder of Defeat by Tweet and One for Democracy, and external biographical material characterizes him as a social entrepreneur and impact investor with experience founding and operating technology and advocacy initiatives rather than practicing law.
On the legal side of the partnership, Whistleblower Aid presents itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization providing counsel and protection strategies for individuals reporting wrongdoing. The organization identifies John Napier Tye as its founder; his biography states that he is a Yale Law School graduate, a former U.S. State Department official, and a licensed attorney with experience handling national security and whistleblower matters. Whistleblower Aid also lists Mark S. Zaid as its founding legal partner, describing him as a Washington-based attorney with decades of experience representing federal employees and national security professionals in whistleblower, clearance, and classified-information cases.
What the Message Is Arguing
The central claim presented to servicemembers is not “disobey orders” in the abstract. The claim is narrower: servicemembers should comply with lawful orders and refuse orders that are unlawful, with the campaign urging troops to seek legal guidance if they believe they have been directed to cross a legal line.
Campaign materials emphasize “manifestly” or “patently” unlawful orders, which tracks a familiar concept in military justice and the law of armed conflict: not every displeasing order is unlawful, and the clearest cases are those that would be obvious to an ordinary servicemember without specialized legal training.
What U.S. Military Law Actually Says
The Uniform Code of Military Justice criminalizes disobedience of lawful orders. Article 92 covers, among other things, violating or failing to obey a lawful general order or regulation, and failing to obey other lawful orders a servicemember has a duty to obey.
Article 90 likewise focuses on a “lawful command” from a superior commissioned officer. The statute’s text is explicit that the offense is willfully disobeying a lawful command, not any command.
The Manual for Courts Martial supplies interpretive guidance that military prosecutors, defense counsel, commanders, and judges use in practice. Its discussion of “lawfulness” states that a general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, federal law, or lawful superior orders, or is otherwise beyond the issuing authority.
That framing matters because it establishes a presumption of lawfulness and places real weight on the word “manifestly.” Most orders in the field do not arrive with a legal memo attached, and service members often have to make decisions under time pressure and incomplete information. The legal system’s baseline assumption, reflected in the MCM, is that orders are lawful unless a clear defect exists.
What the Campaign Adds Beyond the Black Letter Law
The campaign’s practical pitch is that service members should have somewhere to go before a situation escalates. Its materials point to resources and reporting options, including a separate site presented as a clearinghouse for “lawful reporting options” and “independent legal resources.”
The partnering organization’s announcement frames the effort as offering confidential guidance and protection pathways, positioning the campaign as an informational and support layer rather than an instruction to refuse orders reflexively.
A key analytic issue is that “unlawful order” can mean different things in different contexts. Some disputes are clearly criminal (for example, an order to commit a war crime), while others turn on authorities, rules of engagement, or statutory limits that a junior servicemember may not be able to resolve without counsel. The MCM’s presumption of lawfulness helps explain why the campaign emphasizes resources and the “manifestly illegal” concept rather than encouraging broad-based resistance.
Why Billboards, and Why Florida
The campaign’s own page identifies an initial focus on communities associated with major combatant commands and special operations headquarters in Florida, which are high-density nodes for active duty personnel, reservists, civilians, and contractors.
One report describing the rollout says the effort sought “surround” tactics in military communities, using multiple ad formats to ensure repeated exposure.
From an influence-and-messaging perspective, billboards function as high-visibility reinforcement rather than a primary education tool. The practical education component, if it exists, lives in the linked resources and the availability of real-world counsel when a servicemember is deciding whether a legal problem exists and what channels to use.
