Sen. Mark Kelly on Monday sued the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, alleging the Trump administration’s efforts to punish the Arizona Democrat for his participation in a video to U.S. troops violate the Constitution.
The federal civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington was filed one week after Hegseth said his department would cut Kelly’s military retirement pay in response to the video.
The government’s actions “trample on protections the Constitution singles out as essential to legislative independence,” Kelly’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, which was also filed against the U.S. Navy Department and its secretary, John Phelan.
“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 lawyers wrote.
The video at the center of the fight featured Kelly and five other congressional Democrats delivering a message addressed to U.S. troops and members of the intelligence community.
“Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,” Kelly said in the 90-second video, which was first posted on social media on Nov. 18.
It was shared as the U.S. military carried out a succession of airstrikes in the Caribbean targeting boats purported to be smuggling drugs.
Members of Congress, including some Republicans, had questioned the legality of those deadly strikes, which were made without congressional authorization. The attacks have continued, killing 123 people since early September, according to The New York Times.
The other lawmakers in the video, who all served in the military or in U.S. intelligence, each made a similar statement about troops being allowed to refuse unlawful orders.
But Kelly, a former U.S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut, is the only one who formally retired from service, and is therefore the only one who remains subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
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