WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday declined to stop the Pentagon from dismissing three Stars and Stripes employees who say they were unlawfully punished after raising concerns about protecting the military news organization’s editorial independence.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump, found that the journalists were not likely to succeed in proving the Pentagon violated their First Amendment rights. In his ruling, he wrote that Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence “is not at stake here.”
“Plaintiffs argue that their termination will chill the protected expression of themselves and others at Stripes,” McFadden wrote. “Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate a chill here.”
Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte filed suit last Thursday in Washington, D.C., seeking to contest their firings by the Pentagon, which provides partial funding for the publication.
Slavin says he was terminated for insubordination after speaking with CBS News and objecting to possible censorship by the U.S. military. Korte took part in the same interview. Their lawsuit alleges the discipline was retaliation for a report they published about worsening conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
McFadden rejected that argument at this stage, concluding that Slavin and Korte participated in the interviews as part of their official responsibilities as public employees rather than as private citizens.
“They are being fired for giving pre-approved interviews on their paper’s behalf in which they largely toed the company line. Whatever else such a scheme may violate, it does not clearly offend the First Amendment,” the judge wrote.
Lederer was removed shortly after announcing that he planned to retire. He said the Pentagon had placed a new deputy publisher — an active-duty service member — beneath him at the newspaper without informing him.
The Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the lawsuit’s named defendants.
The suit’s plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers for Good Government, Government Accountability Project and a Yale Law School clinic.
McFadden also has presided over The Associated Press’ lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of retaliating against the AP for its decision not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. McFadden last year ordered the White House to restore the AP’s full access to cover presidential events, affirming on First Amendment grounds that the government cannot punish the news organization for the content of its speech. The administration’s appeal is pending.
