A federal judge in Washington has refused to immediately block the Pentagon from dismissing three senior staff at Stars and Stripes, dealing an early setback to their challenge over the military newspaper’s editorial independence.
Judge Trevor McFadden ruled on Friday that publisher Max D. Lederer Jr, editor-in-chief Erik A. Slavin and Middle East correspondent Lara S. Korte were unlikely to prove that their dismissals violated the First Amendment.
The decision allows the Department of Defence to proceed with the terminations, although the wider lawsuit remains unresolved. The three journalists received separation notices on August 21 and were given five days to challenge the action.
The case centres on a CBS News interview in July in which Slavin and Korte spoke about the need for Stars and Stripes to remain independent of Pentagon and political influence. Mr Lederer had authorised the interview and later declined to dismiss the two journalists despite pressure from Defence Department officials.
Mr Lederer, who had announced plans to retire at the end of September after more than 30 years with the publication, was subsequently served with his own termination notice.
The journalists argue that they were speaking as private citizens on a matter of public concern. Their lawyers also allege that the dismissals were retaliation for reporting on worsening conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Navy aircraft carrier that had spent more than nine months deployed in the Middle East.
In a 24-page ruling, Judge McFadden said the public comments appeared to have been made as part of the journalists’ official duties rather than in a private capacity.
“They are thus unlikely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment claim,” he wrote, adding that public employees should understand that they were not free to speak without restriction while carrying out their official responsibilities.
The judge also rejected the argument that the dismissals would have a wider chilling effect on federal employees and government-funded news organisations. He said the plaintiffs had faced a “heavy burden” in seeking an emergency order before the full case could be considered.
Judge McFadden questioned the alleged link to the Abraham Lincoln report, noting that it had been written by another reporter and that the notices for Slavin and Korte had been completed before the article was published.
“Perhaps discovery will strengthen plaintiffs’ case,” he wrote. “But at bottom, on the current record, plaintiffs’ real complaint seems to be that they were victims of a cruel bait-and-switch.”
The lawsuit was filed on August 27 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia by the Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers for Good Government, the Government Accountability Project and a Yale Law School clinic. It names Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell and aide Andrew Brey as defendants.
The legal challenge comes amid a broader Pentagon effort to reshape Stars and Stripes. Changes announced in March restricted the use of some wire services and syndicated features and said the newspaper’s content must be consistent with “good order and discipline”.
Stars and Stripes, which began publishing during the Civil War, has long maintained that it operates independently despite receiving federal funding.
In a statement after Friday’s ruling, the three employees said they were disappointed but insisted that the broader case continued.
“We continue to believe that the Pentagon should not be able to fire journalists for speaking out against censorship and defending the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes,” they said.
