A federal judge in the nation’s capital declined to block the firings of journalists from military news outlet Stars and Stripes, in a case that the judge said required him to “confront the limits of First Amendment protections for public employees speaking about their jobs.”

Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, reporter Lara Korte and publisher Max Lederer had sued the government to stay in their positions, arguing that the Department of Defense wanted to fire them based on their protected speech on matters of public concern.

“In direct contravention of those First Amendment principles, Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons, and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.

Government officials said the journalists spoke to the media in the course of their duties, not as private citizens. Lederer refused a directive to deliver notices of proposed separation to Slavin and Korte.

In his ruling denying the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction on Friday, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sided with the government when it came to the issue of official vs. private speech. “On the relatively bare record now before the Court, Plaintiffs do not carry their significant burden to show that they likely spoke as private citizens,” the Trump appointee wrote.

He said it is possible that the plaintiffs’ case could become stronger as the litigation proceeds. But at this point, he said their “real complaint” seemed to be that “they were victims of a cruel bait-and-switch. They are being fired for giving pre-approved interviews on their paper’s behalf in which they largely toed the company line.”

The judge concluded that “[w]hatever else such a scheme may violate, it does not clearly offend the First Amendment.”

In an amicus brief supporting the journalists, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press noted that, earlier this year, the Trump administration rescinded regulations enshrining the outlet’s editorial independence and announced its intent to take editorial control of the newspaper. The committee said the historical record supports the plaintiffs’ position that Stars and Stripes “has served its readers as an independent newspaper.”

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