“It appears 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.”
Senator Mark Kelly has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, the Department of War, and the Department of the Navy over the Pentagon’s move to censor and reduce the rank of the lawmaker, who is a former Navy Captain, for his role in what has been called the “Seditious Six” video. Kelly and other lawmakers called for active duty troops to “refuse illegal orders” in the late 2025 video.
In the complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, Kelly claimed that the actions from the Pentagon violate the First Amendment, writing that it “forbids the government and its officials from publishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech. That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.”