Jan. 12 (UPI) — Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., filed a lawsuit Monday against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon for trying to censure and demote him.
Kelly’s suit alleges that their efforts are “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Last week, Hegseth announced that the Defense Department is reducing Kelly’s retirement pay over comments he made in November in a video telling service members that they have the right and duty to ignore “unlawful orders.”
Hegseth alleges that the video was “seditious.”
“Six weeks ago, Sen. Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said. “As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice.”
Last week, Hegseth said the Pentagon was working to downgrade Kelly’s military retirement rank and pay for the video.
The suit says that Hegseth is violating Kelly’s First Amendment rights and the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, which grants immunity to lawmakers for official acts.
“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,” the suit said.
“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable,” Kelly said in a statement on X. “His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”
Kelly said the actions of the Pentagon could affect any retired military personnel.
“Now, Pete Hegseth wants our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and pay years or even decades after they leave the military just because he or another Secretary of Defense doesn’t like what they’ve said. That’s not the way things work in the United States of America, and I won’t stand for it,” he said on X.
Five other Democratic lawmakers were in the video, but none of them retired from their service. They are: Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Jason Crow of Colorado and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, along with Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
Also named as defendants in the suit are Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and the Department of the Navy.