---
kind: "section"
citation: "14 U.S.C. § 1909"
title: "14"
title_heading: "Coast Guard"
number: "1909"
heading: "Policy on hazing"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/14/1909"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 19 — Coast Guard Academy"
  - "Subchapter I — Administration"
---

# §1909. Policy on hazing

- (a) **In General.—** Subject to the approval of the Commandant, the Superintendent of the Academy shall issue and make available to the public written policies—
  - (1) subject to [subsection (d)](#d), defining hazing;
  - (2) designed to prevent hazing; and
  - (3) prescribing dismissal, suspension, or other adequate punishment for violations.
- (b) **Effect of Request for Court-martial.—** If a cadet who is charged with violating a policy issued under [subsection (a)](#a), the penalty for which is or may be dismissal from the Academy, requests in writing a trial by a general court-martial, the cadet may not be dismissed for that offense except under sentence of such a court.
- (c) **Limitation.—** A cadet dismissed from the Academy for hazing or bullying may not be reappointed to the Corps of Cadets, and is ineligible for appointment as commissioned[^1] officer in a regular component of the Coast Guard, until the date that is 2 years after the date of the graduation of the class of the cadet.
- (d) **Definition of Hazing.—** In developing the policies under [subsection (a)(1)](#a-1), the Superintendent shall, to the maximum extent practicable, define the term “hazing” as the unauthorized assumption of authority by a cadet whereby another cadet suffers or is exposed to any cruelty, indignity, humiliation, hardship, or oppression, or the deprivation or abridgement of any right.

## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original. Probably should be preceded by “a”.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 119–60, div. G, title LXXII, § 7245(a), Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1730.)