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US appeals court appears skeptical of Pentagon bid to punish Mark Kelly
Case involves White House effort to censure the US senator over video urging service members to ‘refuse illegal orders’
A US federal appeals court at a hearing on Thursday appeared skeptical that the Trump administration could legally punish Mark Kelly, a Democratic US senator, over public remarks he made urging service members to refuse unlawful orders.
Members of a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit criticized the government’s efforts to censure Kelly, a retired navy captain and Arizona Democrat, over more than an hour of questioning.
“These are people who serve their country. Many of them put their lives on the line,” Florence Pan, a circuit judge, told a justice department lawyer. “You’re saying that they have to give up their retired status in order to say something that is a textbook example – taught at West Point and the Naval Academy – that you can disobey illegal orders?“
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Court Leans to Mark Kelly Over Pentagon in Free-Speech Fight
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A federal appeals court panel appeared likely to uphold a lower court order temporarily barring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from penalizing Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) over remarks telling service members they may disobey unlawful orders.
Though Judge Karen Henderson, who was appointed to the court by President George H.W. Bush, appeared sympathetic to the government’s position during oral argument at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Thursday, Democratic-appointed judges Nina Pillard and Florence Pan seemed likely to side with Kelly.
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