Employees of the congressionally funded Stars and Stripes newspaper filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block the Pentagon from firing them after they were dismissed on charges of insubordination.Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, and reporter Lara Korte filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing each of their terminations, which went into effect on Friday, violated the First Amendment.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are arguing that Slavin and Korte were fired for saying that Stars and Stripes should stay independent from the Department of War and any political influence, while Lederer refused to fire the two employees, according to a news release from the plaintiff’s legal team.The newspaper is editorially independent but tied to the Pentagon through its funding.
