§1558 Review of Actions of Selection Boards: Correction of Military Records by Special Boards; Judicial Review

Summary

Allows a military department Secretary to fix a service member’s records when a special board recommends it. The fix can be made effective as of the date of the original selection board action. Special board = a board the Secretary calls to decide if someone should have been recommended for appointment, enlistment, reenlistment, assignment, promotion, retention, separation, retirement, or transfer to inactive status in a reserve component or the Space Force; it can include a record‑correction board under section 1552 if the Secretary so names it, and it does not include certain promotion special boards (sections 628, 14502, 20252). Selection board = the boards listed in law (sections 573(c); 580, 580a, 581; 611(b); 637, 638, 638a; 14101(b); 14701, 14701a, 14704, 14705; 20403) and other boards the Secretary uses to recommend personnel actions to reduce force. Involuntarily board‑separated = a person removed, retired, or transferred because of a selection board recommendation. If a corrected record shows an involuntarily separated person should have stayed, the Secretary must either restore that person to the same status, rights, and pay (with normal offsets) if the person agrees, or, if the person refuses restoration, pay back pay and allowances (with offsets) and give service credit for the applicable period. Restoration cannot keep someone on active duty past the date they otherwise would have left. If a special board recommends no correction, the original action stays final as of its date. Each military Secretary must write rules to run this process, and those rules need Defense Secretary approval; the rules can set application steps and time limits but generally do not apply to the court‑review rules except for the waiver rule described next. A person must first seek review by a special board, or be denied one, before going to court. Courts may review a Secretary’s refusal to convene a special board and may set that refusal aside only for being arbitrary or capricious, not based on substantial evidence, a material error of fact or administration, or otherwise contrary to law. Courts may also review a special board’s recommendation or the Secretary’s action on it under the same standards. If the Secretary does not convene a special board within six months of a complete application, it counts as a denial. If the Secretary does not act within six months after a special board meets, it counts as a denial. The Secretary may, by regulation, extend either six‑month time limit for up to an additional period of not more than six months, but only the Secretary may make that decision.