Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, filed a lawsuit against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday after Hegseth launched a process to demote Kelly’s retirement rank and slash his military pension.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., named Hegseth in his official capacity as secretary of defense. It comes on the heels of months of jousting between Hegseth and Kelly over the senator’s participation in a video reminding service members that they must not follow orders that are illegal under the Constitution.
The suit alleges Hegseth’s actions violate Kelly’s First Amendment rights and the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution, which protects lawmakers from prosecution for official acts.
The filing asks the federal court to block the Pentagon’s effort to censure and demote Kelly, calling it “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Hegseth announced late last week that the Pentagon had begun a rarely used process to demote Kelly and cut his military retirement pay as punishment for his participation in the video with five other Democratic lawmakers.
The video, released in November, drew swift condemnation from Hegseth and President Donald Trump. In a Truth Social post, Trump accused Kelly and the other Democrats who appeared in the video of engaging in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”
Kelly spoke about the lawsuit Monday afternoon on the Senate floor. “If Pete Hegseth succeeds in silencing me, then he and every other Secretary of Defense who comes after him will have license to punish any retired veteran of any political persuasion for the things that they say,” he said. “And by that logic, a 100 year old World War Two Veteran could be hauled in and censured or court martialed because he says something that Pete Hegseth disagrees with.”
The Democratic lawmakers in the video — Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania — are all retired military or intelligence service members.
The lawsuit argues the Trump administration responded to Kelly’s political speech in the video with “extreme rhetoric and punitive retribution,” by publicly accusing Kelly of “sedition and treason.”
In November the Pentagon announced that it was conducting a review of misconduct allegations against Kelly stemming from the video, which would determine whether Kelly should be recalled to active duty status to face court-martial proceedings.
The action is usually reserved for scrutinizing the conduct of active-duty military members. But Hegseth last week formally censured Kelly and announced that the Defense Department had “initiated retirement grade determination proceedings” in conjunction with “reduction in retired pay.”
“Before that proceeding even began, the President publicly accused Senator Kelly of sedition and treason and demanded punishment,” the lawsuit says. It argues that the public conclusion made about Kelly by the Trump administration before a formal investigation violated his right to due process.
Kelly, a former astronaut who retired from the Navy in 2011 as a captain after 25 years of service, condemned Hegseth’s censure last week as “un-American.”
“He is censuring me because I’ve raised concerns about his actions and military operations,” Kelly, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Monday. “Well, that’s my job. I have every right to say these things as an American, as a retired service member and as a U.S. senator, and especially as a member of the Armed Services Committee, whose duty it is to provide oversight over the Department of Defense.”
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.