Sen. Mark Kelly has sued Pete Hegseth and DOD, seeking to enjoin DOD from proceeding with administrative proceedings to reduce his retirement grade and salary. He moved for a TRO and PI and to stay APA proceedings.
There is a potential abstention problem here–specifically the equity-based federal-to-federal version of Younger. Kelly’s TRO brief argues that the proceedings are biased or otherwise predetermined, pushing them into an exception to abstention (or, as the brief frames it, administrative exhaustion). He also might have sued before formal proceedings–at which he could raise his First Amendment, Speech-or-Debate, and due process defenses–have begun.