WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders.
Kelly, a former Navy pilot, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced last Monday that he censured Kelly over the former Navy pilot’s participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.
Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.
Kelly asked the court to declare the censure letter, the proceedings about his rank and any other punishments against him “unlawful and unconstitutional.
“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” his lawsuit says. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”
The censure stemmed from Kelly’s participation in a video in November with five other Democratic lawmakers — all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community — in which they called on troops to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.”