A federal judge blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to censure and demote Sen. Mark Kelly for appearing in a video urging service members not to follow unlawful orders.
The top Trump official had been desperately trying to punish the retired combat veteran and celebrated war hero after President Donald Trump demanded action against the six lawmakers in the video who he accused of “seditious behavior.”
After Hegseth announced the Defense Department would try to demote the Navy captain who retired in 2011, Kelly vowed to fight it.
In the blistering opinion released on Thursday, District Judge Richard Leon, who was appointed by President George W Bush in 2001, rejected Hegseth’s efforts.
He acknowledged that the defense secretary was relying on a “well-established doctrine that military servicemembers enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections.”
“Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military. This Court will not be the first to do so!” he wrote.
Leon also blasted the Trump administration’s argument that military decisions are exempt from judicial review.
“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” he wrote.
Leon concluded: “Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired servicemembers, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired servicemembers have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years.”
“If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the first Amendment in the Bill of Rights!” he added.
The judge’s ruling was the second humiliation for the Trump administration this week as it tries to punish the six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in the video.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, led by former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, tried and failed to indict the six lawmakers.
The group of lawmakers who participated in the video last November included Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan, along with Sens. Kelly and Elissa Slotkin.
In response to it, Trump accused the lawmakers of “seditious behavior, punishable by death” in a social media post. He also shared a post calling for their hanging. The White House later denied he was calling for their execution.
The Justice Department first sought to interview the lawmakers before this week’s attempt to get an indictment, while the Defense Department also attempted to pursue separate action against Kelly.
Kelly attended the hearing in federal court earlier this month ahead of Leon’s decision. On Thursday, he responded to the decision in a video.
“Today a federal court made clear that Pete Hegseth violated the Constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said,” Kelly said.
The senator argued the case was never about him, and the administration was sending a threatening message to millions of retired veterans that they can be demoted for speaking out.
“This is a critical moment to show this administration that they can’t keep undermining the freedoms that generations of Americans like me went to war to defend,” Kelly said.
He warned that his fight might not be over because the president and his administration “do not know how to admit when they’re wrong.”
The Daily Beast asked the Pentagon for a response to the decision but was referred to a social media post in which Hegseth aggressively pushed back.
“This will be immediately appealed,” he wrote on X. “Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain.’”
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