BREAKING: Senator Mark Kelly hits Pete Hegseth with a massive lawsuit for violating the Constitution by trying to decrease his military rank and pay in a blatant act of partisan abuse.
This war hero refuses to roll over and play dead…
Hegseth targeted Kelly with a “Secretarial Letter of Censure” for simply releasing a video urging the military to refuse any illegal orders that Trump might give. The Defense Secretary absurdly claimed that the perfectly reasonable and patriotic video “undermined the chain of command” and “counseled disobedience.” In reality, Kelly was standing up for our Constitution.
The senator’s new lawsuit was filed earlier today in the U.S. District Court for D.C. and asserts that Hegseth’s “actions violate numerous constitutional guarantees and have no basis in statute.” The Pentagon is also named as a defendant.
“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” the filing reads. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”
It goes on to state that “never in our nation’s history” has the Executive Branch “imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech.”
“Allowing that unprecedented step here would invert the constitutional structure by subordinating the Legislative Branch to executive discipline and chilling congressional oversight of the armed forces,” it continues.
Kelly’s attorneys allege that Hegseth also violated due process because Trump accused the senator of “sedition and treason and demanded punishment” before proceedings had even begun, and Hegseth then echoed those sentiments.
The suit says that Hegseth’s actions, if left unchallenged, will “inflict immediate and irreparable harm” by imposing “official punishment for protected speech” and chilling legislative oversight. It would also send a powerful signal to retired service members and Congress that criticism of the president’s use of the military may be “met with retaliation.”
The suit concludes by demanding “declaratory and injunctive relief” and for the court to “declare the censure letter, reopening determination, retirement grade determination proceedings, and related actions unlawful and unconstitutional; to vacate those actions; to enjoin their enforcement; and to preserve the status of a coequal Congress and an apolitical military.”
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