A judge has rejected Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to retaliate against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a former Navy captain and astronaut who incurred the wrath of the Pentagon chief when he reminded active service members that they do not have to carry out illegal orders.
Judge Richard Leon, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote Thursday that Hegseth’s efforts to oust Kelly and strip him of veterans’ benefits had “trafficked on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment liberties and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.”
“Secretary Hegseth relies on the well-established doctrine that military service members enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protection because of the fundamental obligation to obedience and discipline in the armed forces. Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired service members, much less a retired service member, who exercises responsibility over Congress and the military to exercise Leon, wrote on Congress and the military appointed by former President George W. Bush “This Court will not be the first to do this!”
In his sharp rebuke of Hegseth, Leon quoted Bob Dylan’s hit song (and Rolling Stone’s 187 greatest songs of all time) “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
“After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.’ At the very least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands that they receive it!” wrote the judge.
Hegseth moved to strip the senator of some of his military retirement benefits and ranks after Kelly — along with other veteran members of Congress — urged members of the military to honor their oath and “reject illegal orders,” amid the Trump administration’s bombing of boats in the Caribbean late last year.
Kelly sued Hegseth in January, writing in a statement on X that “his rank and retirement are things I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got a shot at it. I missed vacations and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on shoulder.”
“If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in the history of our country, thinks he can intimidate me with censure or threats to remove me or prosecute me, he still won’t take it. I will fight this with everything I have – not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump decide to bring their government to Donald Trump” he added.
All in all, Judge Leon seems to agree, and he used some decidedly colorful language when he put it on paper. The judge called the Defense Department’s case against Kelly a pile of “Horsefeathers!” and “anemic!”
“Instead of attempting to curtail the First Amendment freedoms of retired service members, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants can reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired service members have brought to public discussions and debate on military issues in our Nation over the past 250 years,” Leon wrote. “Hopefully this injunction will in some small way help bring about a course correction in the Department of Defense’s approach to these matters.”
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