Stars and Stripes Journalists Sue DOD Over Terminations
NEWS & RESEARCH
In August 2026, the Pentagon fired three of Stars and Stripes's most prominent figures: its publisher, its editor in chief, and a civilian reporter. The dismissals followed the publication of a piece that exposed conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln—specifically, mental health concerns and food and water shortages on the aircraft carrier, which had been deployed at sea for nine months. The day after the report ran, Pentagon officials directed the paper's publisher, Max D. Lederer Jr., to present notices of separation to Erik Slavin, the editor in chief, and Lara Korte, a reporter. Lederer did not deliver them. Instead, he announced his retirement, writing in an internal email to staff that “My understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.” Before he could retire, though, the DoD fired him, along with Slavin and Korte. Slavin said the termination notices he and Korte received cited “insubordination,” pointing specifically to remarks the two had made in a CBS News interview in July. In it, Slavin had said any hypothetical censorship of the newspaper by the federal government would cross a red line, and Korte added, "I'm working for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker.” Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers For Good Government, Government Accountability Project and the Yale School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the firings. Stars and Stripes was founded during the Civil War to serve members of the US military and their families. Though partially funded by the Department of Defense (DoD), the outlet has long prided itself on its editorial independence—meaning the federal government does not dictate what it can and cannot publish.
SOURCES: The Free Press | New York Times | Washington Post | TIME | CNN | CBS | CBS
ANALYSIS & OPINION
According to The Free Press, "It appears that Pentagon leadership wishes to turn Stars and Stripes into a mouthpiece for the department." The firings are the latest in a series of incidents by the DoD attacking the paper's independence. In January 2026, the agency announced its "modernization" plans and rescinded the federal regulation that had required Stars and Stripes to deliver news to its readers "without news management or censorship"—the rule that made the paper's independence binding rather than merely customary. Then in March, the DoD even issued a memo banning the paper from running comics or reprinting articles from outlets like The Associated Press. Thus, the department is trying to acquire the authority to decide what its troops read about, which The Free Press says “implies that our warriors are grunts whose minds can be filled with propaganda.” David Seide, counsel for the Government Accountability Project, one of the groups representing the fired Stars and Stripes staff, noted “It’s a sad day when independent journalists are punished just for saying they are not tools to promote government propaganda. Our lawsuit seeks to right that wrong.”
SOURCES: The Free Press | New York Times | Washington Post | TIME | CNN | CBS | CBS | Government Accountability Project
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Pass the Stars and Stripes Editorial Independence Act, which would turn the rescinded regulation's language into statute. The bill explicitly says that the newspaper's editorial operations must be independent of the military's chain of command and that the DoD cannot withhold news simply because it portrays the department in an unfavorable light. It would also allow Stars and Stripes to publish comics again and run wire stories from outlets like the Associated Press. However, this bill should be amended to also protect journalists from retaliation, explicitly barring the Pentagon from firing, suspending, demoting, or otherwise disciplining editorial employees for protected journalistic activity, such as publishing reporting that is critical of the government, publicly defending the newspaper's independence, speaking to the press about censorship, communicating with Congress, or refusing an order that would violate Stars and Stripes' editorial independence. It should further state that none of those activities may constitute insubordination, misconduct, or any other cause for an adverse employment action, and that any proposed removal be reviewed by the newspaper's ombudsman or its publishers' advisory board.
Pass legislation shifting the burden of proof onto the Pentagon in retaliation cases. A rule barring the DoD from firing journalists over their reporting only works if someone has to prove why the firing happened—and right now that falls on the person who just lost their job. Legislation should provide that when a Stars and Stripes employee is disciplined shortly after reporting a critical story or publicly defending the paper's independence, the department must prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have taken the same action anyway. That standard already exists in federal whistleblower law, so Congress would be applying a familiar rule rather than inventing one.
Pass legislation to provide remedies for Stars and Stripes employees fired or disciplined in retaliation for protected editorial activity during the Pentagon's 2026 effort to control the newspaper. The protections should apply retroactively to January 15, 2026, the day the DoD rescinded the rule guaranteeing the paper's independence. Anyone found to have been retaliated against after that date should be entitled to reinstatement, back pay, restored benefits and seniority, expungement of retaliatory personnel records, and attorney's fees.
Pass legislation reclassifying Stars and Stripes newsroom staff as regular federal civil service employees. Most of the paper's civilian positions are currently funded outside the normal federal payroll—the job listings call them "nonappropriated fund" positions—which leaves those employees without the appeal rights ordinary federal workers have when they are fired. Moving newsroom staff into the standard system would give them the right to challenge a termination before the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent body outside the DoD.
Pass an appropriations rider that withholds specified Pentagon administrative funding until the DoD reinstates the fired employees and restores the pre-2026 editorial policies.
Litigation:
Slavin et al. v. Hegseth et al.: The three fired staffers are suing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Pentagon officials in federal court, arguing that the administration removed them illegally as part of its "extraordinary censorship efforts." They say they are "facing imminent retaliation and termination in violation of their First Amendment and statutory rights" as a result of supporting Stars and Stripes' editorial independence. Besides asking for their jobs back, the plaintiffs want the court to undo the Pentagon's January 2026 repeal of the rule that guaranteed the paper's independence.
Smith v. Department of Defense: In April 2026, the Pentagon also fired Jacqueline Smith, the ombudsman of Stars and Stripes—a watchdog role Congress created in 1991 to safeguard the paper's editorial independence. Smith told colleagues the Pentagon gave her no reason for the firing, but that she believed it came in response to her criticism of the agency's moves to overhaul the newspaper. She sued in federal court in June 2026, alleging the removal was retaliatory and violated her First Amendment rights. If the court agrees with her, the paper gets its watchdog back—and, more importantly, a ruling that the Pentagon cannot fire the person Congress assigned to watch it.
Dardarian and Church v. Department of Defense: In June 2026, two members of the paper's advisory board sued the Pentagon over its March "modernization" memo, calling it an act of "illegal censorship." The board members argue the rules were written without notice or input from the newspaper, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and that they violate the First Amendment by restraining the press and by denying readers access to what the paper publishes.
Legislation: S.4614 - Stars and Stripes Editorial Independence Act
