On August 27, 2026, three ousted Stars and Stripes staffers sued the Pentagon in federal court in Washington: editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte. The suit names Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and Principal Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Andrew Brey.
The sequence is the substance of the complaint. On August 11, Stars and Stripes reported on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, describing failing mental health and food and water shortages on a carrier nine months into deployment. On August 12, one day later, the Pentagon directed Lederer to present notices of separation to Slavin and Korte. The stated grounds were not the Lincoln story. The Department cited statements the two had made in an eight-minute “CBS Sunday Morning” segment on July 5 about changes to the paper's independence, calling them insubordination. The lawsuit notes the defendants had understood those statements to express personal opinions and took no action at the time “despite their displeasure.”
Lederer did not carry out the firings. A week later he announced his retirement effective September 30, writing to staff that “my philosophy of leadership, and 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.” Three days after that he was pushed out ahead of his retirement date, and Slavin and Korte were fired.
The complaint reads: “Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press's freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons, and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East.”
The institutional context matters. Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Pentagon but operates as a commercial newspaper with a decades-long record of editorial independence, and it covers the agency that funds it. In January the Pentagon said it would “modernize” the outlet and “refocus its content away from woke distractions,” and moved the same day to repeal the regulations protecting its editorial independence. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that repeal unlawful, and seeks a temporary restraining order.
This is the third First Amendment suit against the Department over the paper this year. Ombudsman Jacqueline Smith sued in June after being forced out, and two advisory board members sued in June over the “modernization” effort, alleging illegal censorship. The Pentagon declined to comment (see A Pentagon Spokesperson Confirms U.S. Central Command Keeps a Secret Directory of Blacklisted Journalists and Border Patrol Detains the Father of a Sailor Who Had Been Deployed Nine Months on the USS Abraham Lincoln, as He Waited for His Son to Come Home).