Employees of the congressionally funded Stars and Stripes newspaper filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block the Pentagon from firing them after they were dismissed on charges of insubordination.
Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, and reporter Lara Korte filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing each of their terminations, which went into effect on Friday, violated the First Amendment.
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Lawyers for the plaintiffs are arguing that Slavin and Korte were fired for saying that Stars and Stripes should stay independent from the Department of War and any political influence, while Lederer refused to fire the two employees, according to a news release from the plaintiff’s legal team.
The newspaper is editorially independent but tied to the Pentagon through its funding.
The employees’ terminations followed interviews Slavin and Korte had on a segment of CBS News’s CBS Sunday Morning show from July 5. The plaintiffs argue their firings centered around answers the two employees gave the outlet when asked about the independence of Stars and Stripes.
“I’m working for Stars and Stripes, not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker. I’m here to cover the military community,” Korte told CBS News.
Slavin also gave a similar answer when the CBS News reporter asked about any “red lines” he has when it comes to following Pentagon orders versus following the freedom of the press.
“Don’t run a perfectly accurate story, run this instead. Here it is, written by the Pentagon. That would be a red line,” Slavin said.
In the 45-page complaint, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue the “spark” that caused the War Department to crack down on Slavin and Korte was an Aug. 11 article reporting worsening conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Although the article was not written by Slavin and Korte, the next day Pentagon officials asked Lederer to hand the two employees Notices of Separation, per the complaint. Lederer stepped down, avoiding having to do so, and told Stars and Stripes that his leadership vision differed in ”fundamental ways” from the Pentagon’s vision for the outlet.
According to the complaint, days later Lederer, Slavin, and Korte were each served Notices of Separation from the War Department, with charges of insubordination.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on the lawsuit.
The Pentagon has made several changes to its media landscape since War Secretary Pete Hegseth took the helm. The former Fox News host has reshaped the press corps covering the Pentagon and had initially announced restrictions on what Pentagon information reporters could publish, though that policy was later reversed.
In early January, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell issued a statement announcing a new direction for Stars and Stripes under the Trump administration.
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“We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” Parnell said.
Parnell, Hegseth, Principal Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Andrew Brey, and the Pentagon are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
