Judge McFadden determined that the Stars and Stripes employees were acting within their official capacity when they gave the CBS News interview.
Posted by The Lawfare Podcast, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 80%
The Lawfare PodcastSep 14, 2026
Judge McFadden's 24-page preliminary-injunction ruling found that the journalists' CBS interview remarks suggested they spoke as part of their official duties, not as private citizens, and reporting describes this as a ruling. The claim's core holds.
What was said
… But there's this, like, prior kind of issue of, you know, you only get to that point if, ah, the person was not speaking in their official capacity or in their, like, kind of, official duties. Um, and here the issue is that, ah, Judge McFadden thinks that all of these people were, you know, acting within their official capacity as Stars and Stripes employees. Um, you know, he looked at things like, um, uh, often, like, you know, looked at their official job responsibilities, looked at the fact that often the editor-in-chief does do interviews about the publication, um, looked at the fact that this interview took …
The Lawfare Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. McFadden wrote that the plaintiffs' pleadings and the CBS News segment 'suggest that they spoke as part of their official duties and not as private citizens.'[1][2]
Supports. Stars and Stripes reporting says McFadden 'ruled that the journalists spoke as part of their official duties and were therefore not entitled to free speech protections.'[3]
Supports. Courthouse News reports the judge said the journalists 'spoke as part of their official duties and not as private citizens' in the preliminary injunction opinion.[4]
Context. The finding came in a preliminary-injunction ruling at an 'early stage' of the case, and The Hill says the hearing focused on whether two of the employees were acting within the scope of their roles.[1][5]
Sources
5 sources: 1 tier 1, 4 not rated
- 1Judge declines to halt Stars and Stripes firingsthehill.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports, context
- 2Judge will not block Pentagon move to fire Stars and Stripes journalists - The Boston Globebostonglobe.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 3Judge declines to block firing of Stars and Stripes journalistsstripes.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Federal judge won't stop Pentagon firing of Stars and Stripes ...courthousenews.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Federal judge declines to halt firings of Stars and Stripes staffersnewsnationnow.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Judge Trevor McFadden declined to prevent the Department of Defense from firing Stars and Stripes journalists and the publication's publisher.True
- The editor-in-chief and two reporters for Stars and Stripes were terminated after giving comments on CBS News regarding editorial independence.Mixed
- A judge allowed the Pentagon to fire Stars and Stripes journalists.True
- Pete Hegseth made a regulatory change repealing editorial independence that Stars and Stripes previously had.True
- A federal judge found that the government's failure to devise, publicize, and utilize narrow and specific standards for the issuance or denial of press passes infringes on First Amendment rights.True