WASHINGTON — A federal judge refused Friday to block the Pentagon from firing three Stars and Stripes staff members who claim they were illegally disciplined for speaking out about the military news outlet's need to maintain its editorial independence.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump. ruled that the journalists are unlikely to successfully prove that the Pentagon violated their First Amendment free speech rights. He said 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 sued last Thursday in Washington, D.C., to challenge their firings by the Pentagon, which partially funds the news outlet.
Slavin says he was dismissed for insubordination after giving an interview to CBS News in which he objected to potential censorship by the U.S. military. Korte participated in the same interview. Their lawsuit says they were punished in retaliation for publishing a report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
McFadden, however, concluded that Slavin and Korte gave the interviews as part of their official duties as public employees and not 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 dismissed shortly after announcing his impending retirement. He said the Pentagon had installed a new deputy publisher — an active-duty service member — under him at the newspaper without his knowledge.
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.
Democracy Defenders Fund attorney Taryn Wilgus Null said the judge's decision emphasizes the “high burden” that plaintiffs have in seeking preliminary injunction, as the plaintiffs did in this case. She noted that the ruling wasn't the final word in the litigation.
“While we are disappointed in the decision, we fully expect to prevail after we have an opportunity to take discovery and all the facts are revealed,” Null said in a statement.
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.
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