---
kind: "section"
citation: "14 U.S.C. § 2161"
title: "14"
title_heading: "Coast Guard"
number: "2161"
heading: "Composition of boards"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/14/2161"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 21 — Personnel; Officers"
  - "Subchapter II — Discharges; Retirements; Revocation of Commissions; Separation for Cause"
---

# §2161. Composition of boards

- (a) A board convened under section [2158](/usc/14/2158.md) or [2159](/usc/14/2159.md) of this title shall consist of at least three officers of the grade of commander or above, all of whom are serving in a grade senior to the grade of any officer considered by the board.
- (b) No individual may be a member of more than one board convened under section [2158](/usc/14/2158.md) or [2159](/usc/14/2159.md) of this title to consider the same officer.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 88–130, § 1(10)(C), Sept. 24, 1963, 77 Stat. 188, § 324; renumbered § 2161 and amended Pub. L. 115–282, title I, §§ 112(b), 123(b)(2), Dec. 4, 2018, 132 Stat. 4216, 4240; Pub. L. 116–283, div. G, title LVXXXV [LXXXV], § 8505(a)(19), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4748; Pub. L. 119–60, div. G, title LXXII, § 7223(d)(1)(A), Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1702.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2025—Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 119–60 substituted “section 2158 or 2159” for “section 2158, 2159, or 2160”.

2021—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “individual” for “person”.

2018—Pub. L. 115–282, § 123(b)(2), substituted “section 2158, 2159, or 2160” for “section 321, 322, or 323” in subsecs. (a) and (b).

Pub. L. 115–282, § 112(b), renumbered section 324 of this title as this section.