Do I need to render a salute to an officer when my hands are occupied?

As usual, the Army has little better to do.

CSM wanted to show off his power to the officer. The services are chock full of this putzes.

You're gonna quote Army regs to the CSM? Good luck with that.

Sgt Martin, you could have placed the binder under your left arm and still carry your coffee cup, and then you could have rendered a proper salute.

No, you should not be required to salute. It might also be better to do the LTC says below to avoid trouble again.

first there are CSMs and there are E9s. This E9 should have been dressed down by the Cpt. That not happening LTC Burch's answer is great.

No!

I’d try to shuffle stuff in my hands to L hand, come to attention & salute. HOWEVER., as an LTC in charge of my own department when deployed to LRMC, I’d often be in my office, working w/computer questions & phone calls. Fairly frequently, a senior officer would come into my office, early or late.
My own boss knew what I was doing & usually just wanted to touch base, say hi, or, more critically, get a fresh cup of coffee. However, when the new O-6 in charge of surgery arrived, apparently w/a stick still firmly implanted in his backside, PLUS the late 10/06 Navy replacements, things changed.
Good thing I remained focused on mission instead of ego’s. By the way, my LRMC commander, then COL, now BG (retired), made hospital rounds any time of day; often found me in front of copy machine, in office of our 24/7 ops, just “checking in” w/troops & staff, as he did throughout the hospital. Standing up, saying “hi, sir” & filling him in on what was going on, was all that was needed. The ICU & ward staff also knew he’d probably show up any time. The belief that he was checking up on us, “taking the temperature” of his hospital’s morale & function, was more precious than gold.

From the point of view of the CSM, you can hold your mug in your left hand and put the binder under your left arm long enough to render a salute. The common interpretation of AR 600-25 is that you don't salute if you are carrying too many items or too large of one item.

This is a clear example of one of the things wrong with our Army -- that we have someone apparently wearing the rank as a sergeant who goes out of her way to put things in both hands just so she can claim to have an excuse to avoid saluting, then comes here whining in the hope of finding support for her petty childish rant.

This is not the only such post we have seen on RallyPoint recently --- and we even have people voting up her question as if there were any actual question about why she has been verbally reprimanded at least twice for such deliberate misconduct.