"Of the many questions posed by those gathered in U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's courtroom last week, the most obvious one of all never came up: Why on earth was anyone here in the first place? Until now, the military has pursued only a tiny number of criminal cases against retirees for actions that occur after military service has ended. Until now, the idea that the secretary of defense would accuse a lawmaker of treason simply for disagreeing with him would be laughable."
"At the heart of the case is a November video in which Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers-all veterans of the military or intelligence agencies-address U.S. troops, reminding them that they "can and must refuse illegal orders." Their goal with the video was to push back against the president's domestic troop deployments, a trend his critics feared might lead to clashes with ordinary Americans or be used to interfere in upcoming elections."
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth sought to strip Senator Mark Kelly of his military retirement rank and pay over a November video in which Kelly and five other Democratic veterans urged U.S. troops that they "can and must refuse illegal orders." The lawmakers aimed to oppose domestic troop deployments and raised concerns that such deployments could provoke clashes or be used to influence elections. The move represents an unprecedented effort by the Defense Department to punish a retiree for post-service speech and risks chilling First Amendment protections for veterans who speak on political or military matters.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]