Overview
- U.S. District Judge Richard Leon granted a preliminary injunction that bars the Pentagon from downgrading Mark Kelly’s rank or reducing his retirement pay.
- Leon said Kelly’s remarks are likely protected by the First Amendment and wrote that the Defense Department had trampled those rights and threatened the freedoms of millions of military retirees.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he will immediately appeal the ruling and again characterized Kelly’s conduct as “insurrection.”
- The Pentagon’s action followed a November video in which Kelly and five other Democrats urged active-duty troops and intelligence personnel to refuse unlawful orders and criticized certain U.S. operations.
- Because retirement pay is tied to final rank, the halted review carried significant financial consequences for the retired Marine aviator and former NASA astronaut.