A federal judge ruled in favor of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) Thursday, finding that Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated the senator’s constitutional rights by attempting to downgrade his rank and retirement benefits.
Hegseth targeted Kelly after he participated in a video warning members of the military not to follow illegal orders; he was one of six lawmakers who participated in the video, which came out amid President Trump’s National Guard deployments and Venezuelan boat strikes.
This week, federal prosecutors tried and failed to secure an indictment against Kelly and the other five members of Congress — a stunning rebuke by a Washington D.C. jury. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a former CIA analyst who also appeared in the video, told reporters Thursday that “we hear they’re going again tomorrow,” implying that the administration may try to secure the indictment again.
The administration seemed to go after Kelly first because his retired military status provided another route to punish him (and, perhaps, because his possible presidential ambitions made him an attractive target). Kelly sued, challenging the Pentagon’s investigation and censure letter, issued as part of proceedings to demote him. On Thursday, he prevailed, at least preliminarily: D.C. District Judge Richard Leon, a George Bush appointee, blocked, for now, Hegseth’s retribution.
“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 in a colorful, energetic ruling. “After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.’ To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!”
He rejected Hegseth’s primary argument out of hand, that the reduced First Amendment rights of active servicemembers extend to retired ones as well. He wrote that such a winnowing of free speech is even less acceptable when applied to Kelly, a sitting member of Congress.
“If legislators do not feel free to express their views and the views of their constituents without fear of reprisal by the Executive, our representative system of Government cannot function!” he exclaimed.
He granted Kelly’s request for a preliminary injunction, a decision he telegraphed at a hearing earlier this month when he expressed incredulity at the Trump administration’s arguments.
He concluded his Thursday ruling by chastising Trump’s Department of Defense.
“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,” he wrote. “If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the first Amendment in the Bill of Rights!”
Read the ruling here:
