The fired staff members of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes sued the Pentagon over their dismissals on Aug. 27, accusing the military of “extraordinary censorship efforts” in violation of the First Amendment.
The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, came less than a week after the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, Erik Slavin, told news outlets that he was dismissed for insubordination after a CBS interview in which he said censorship by the military would "constitute a red line." He maintained that the newspaper "must remain editorially independent."
The Pentagon also fired publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte.
The lawsuit alleges that the Pentagon is attempting to fire the staffers
“for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East.”
The trio is being represented by Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers for Good Government, the Government Accountability Project and the Yale School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic.
The Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell and Andrew Brey, Hegseth’s principal deputy assistant for public affairs, are listed as defendants.
Among other requests, the complaint asked the court to declare the firings unlawful under the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedures Act and bar the Pentagon from proceeding with the terminations.
Stars and Stripes' website says about half of its funding comes from the Defense Department and that it is "editorially independent" and "governed by the principles of the First Amendment." The Pentagon has been accused of violating those principles throughout President Donald Trump's second term, with ongoing lawsuits related to the press policy it implemented in 2025 and the removal of hundreds of books from its schools over perceived "wokeness."
USA TODAY reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fired Stars and Stripes staffers sue Pentagon, Hegseth
