Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be attorney general, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 15, 2026.
President Donald Trump failed to convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a former Stars and Stripes publisher over alleged First Amendment violations — although the same judge also decided not to provide the plaintiff with injunctive relief.
"JUST IN: Judge Amit Mehta (Obama/DC) denies fired Stars & Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith's bid to be quickly restored to her post, but judge also declines DoD's request to dismiss case, says 1st Amendment issues are complex," reported Politico's Josh Gerstein on X on Tuesday. In the decision, Mehta wrote that "on September 24, 2026,the court took testimony from one witness called by Plaintiff, Max Lederer, Stars and Stripes’ mostrecent publisher, and heard argument on the motions. See Hr’g Tr. (draft).As discussed further below, the court denies the request for injunctive relief becausePlaintiff has failed to demonstrate that she is “likely to succeed on the merits.” Winter v. Nat. Res.Def. Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008)."
Mehta added, "The court, however, denies the motion to dismiss."
Speaking to an event hosted by Military Veterans in Journalism that was broadcast by CSPAN earlier in October, former Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer described how the Pentagon described journalists who wrote stories that the Trump administration disliked as guilty of "insubordination" and demanded they be fired.
"I was just told, 'do what you're instructed and serve these notices,'" Lederer explained.
He added, “There were a couple of things wrong when I received the direction to terminate them. First: I don’t believe you can direct a supervisor in what they should do and tell them what they should do. You can share with them what you believe and … give that supervisor an opportunity to consider and have that conversation. So, my initial reaction was to push back as say ‘I don’t understand the foundation of your conclusion that they were insubordinate and that they were not using their First Amendment rights to speak their personal opinion.’”
He concluded, “I do not believe that when we put on a uniform or work for the government, we give up all our First Amendment rights,” Lederer continued. “We do have rights to speak up and say what we believe is right or wrong or good or bad about how we serve. But their disciplinary action was saying basically ‘you have no First Amendment Rights.’ It’s not consistent to me to fire somebody who’s exercising their First Amendment right when their job is to speak for other people who are also speaking their First Amendment rights. It didn’t make any sense to me.”
Disclosure: AlterNet publisher Roxanne Cooper worked with Mr. Lederer at Stars & Stripes from 2000-2003.