Federal Judge Questions Pentagon’s Overreach in Punishing Senator Mark Kelly

In a rare courtroom drama where national sovereignty and constitutional rights collide, a federal judge challenged the Pentagon’s legal justification for censuring Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy pilot and sitting senator. The issue: whether the Department of Defense can punish a retired service member for exercising his constitutional right to free speech.When Does Military Discipline Cross the Line into Political Suppression?Judge Richard Leon, nominated by President George W. Bush, confronted government attorneys with an uncomfortable truth: there is no clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent that supports punishing Kelly under military law simply for urging troops not to obey unlawful...