Three staff members from the military publication Stars and Stripes have launched a legal challenge over their termination by the Pentagon, accusing the Trump administration of breaching their First Amendment rights to oppose state interference in their reporting.
Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte are listed as plaintiffs in the complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C.
The Pentagon, which provides partial financial backing for the outlet, terminated the trio last week.
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.
“Stripes’ historical editorial independence is critical to its core mission of gathering and providing unbiased, credible journalism to the U.S. military community, particularly servicemembers and their families stationed overseas,” the suit says.
When Slavin was dismissed, he told The Associated Press that he and others received separation notices and maintained his stance "that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent."
Lederer was dismissed shortly after announcing his impending retirement, effective at the end of September. He said the Pentagon had installed a new deputy publisher, an active-duty service member, under him at the newspaper without his prior knowledge.
Lederer, who spent three decades at the newspaper and had served as publisher since 2007, is departing as Hegseth’s Pentagon seeks greater editorial control over the publication and moves to eliminate what it calls “woke distractions.”
In a memo to staff, Lederer, the newspaper’s second full-time civilian publisher, said it had “become clear” that his leadership philosophy and understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes fundamentally differed from the direction the Department of Defense’s leadership has envisioned for the organization.
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.
The Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the named defendants.
