Three senior journalists from Stars and Stripes, the military's independent newspaper, have filed suit against the Department of Defense, alleging their terminations violated First Amendment protections and internal Pentagon policy.
Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, Publisher Max Lederer, and Middle East Correspondent Lara Korte were fired last week following what Pentagon leadership characterized as insubordination. The three journalists contend their removals were retaliation for protected speech and independent reporting.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., names Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and deputy assistant Andrew Brey as defendants. According to court documents, the terminations stem from two separate incidents: Slavin and Korte's participation in a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment examining Pentagon efforts to reshape the publication, and Stars and Stripes' reporting about deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during an extended deployment in the Middle East.
"Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs 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," the lawsuit states.
The timing is significant. Lederer received orders to terminate Slavin and Korte one day after the ship story ran, according to court filings. When Lederer refused to fire them without cause, he too was removed from his position.
This is not the first clash between Pentagon leadership and Stars and Stripes' editorial independence. In April, the department terminated the publication's ombudsman, who had publicly criticized Trump administration oversight of the outlet.
Those moves came after the Pentagon announced a sweeping overhaul of Stars and Stripes in January. In a statement posted to social media, Parnell declared the department's intention to "refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale" and redirect the publication toward "warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY." The statement explicitly criticized what Parnell characterized as "repurposed DC gossip columns" and Associated Press reprints.
Stars and Stripes has operated as an independent news organization serving military personnel for decades, historically maintaining editorial separation from Pentagon leadership. The January directive suggested a desire to align editorial content more closely with Pentagon messaging priorities.
"Our goal is to protect the rights of service members and their families to a free and independent press," Slavin, Lederer, and Korte said in a joint statement. "Stars and Stripes has served them for generations, and that independence is essential to keeping military communities fully and accurately informed."
A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the litigation.
The lawsuit challenges whether the Pentagon's realignment crosses constitutional lines. The complaint argues that the firings violate both the First Amendment and Department of Defense regulations governing the publication's independence.
Discovery in the case could yield significant documentation, including internal emails between Parnell, Hegseth, and other officials discussing the newspaper overhaul and decisions to fire the staffers.
