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Attorneys for the unvaccinated Navy personnel argued in briefs to the 5th Circuit that Austins memo and other Defense Department actions show that the Navy still intends to treat unvaccinated personnel like second-class citizens because of their religious beliefs.. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. WASHINGTON The Air Force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the. Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years. Troops who refuse mandatory COVID-19 vaccines will likely also face courts-martial for the same offense, said Zaid, who represented Task & Purpose in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force . Most of the plaintiffs express some sort of Christian faith, though the vast majority of denominations have no formal ban on vaccination. Vaccine Mandates in the Military: Litigation Over - Bill of Health A dozen U.S. Air Force officers have filed a lawsuit . The Air Force number is probably in the same ballpark. And thats why this is a sham.Jared Serbu: The Air Force case is a putative class action. But although the Air Force has approved hundreds of medical and administrative exemptions, they have only approved a very small handful of religious exemptions and even the ones that theyve approved by their own admission, they are only for Air Force members who are basically already separating or are already on their way out. All 16 service members joined the lawsuit anonymously, listing in the filing only their currently assigned bases and statuses in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or reserve components. I dont think that the precedent is going to be that big of one, Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, said. msn back to msn home news Skip To Navigation Well, the good news is the law is set up so that the government actually can win those cases, when all they have to do is demonstrate that they have a compelling interest. On Friday, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, which repeals the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members. The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,OConnor wrote, adding: The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. And I havent heard of a single Starbucks shutting down. Theyre burdensome, but the person says, But you know what, at the end of the day, Im not have to inject something in my body that violates my religious beliefs. The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Mike Barry:No, I think what happens is they become much smaller cases, right? There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. Another lawsuit, first filed by troops attached to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has led to temporary protections for around 10,000 active-duty, Active Reserve, reserve and National Guard members of the Air Force and Space Force who requested a religious exemption from the COVID vaccine, although only those who have been denied an exemption would face immediate action. Military officials announced this week that, after months of warnings, they have . And one of the reasons for that is if they if theyre between the ages of 17 and 23, and theyre not vaccinated, were not even willing to talk to them. And so theyre basically closing off an entire segment of society in a discriminatory manner. Department of Justice seeks dismissal of military vaccine lawsuit Judge Blocks Military Vaccine Mandate Again, Dares Supreme Court to Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. Peter Hill: Stats shown illness up in the military after COVID vaccine Its just under 4,100. U.S. military is discharging service members who refuse to get The Air Force has approved 135 religious exemption requests out of thousands submitted so far. Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. T he MAGA medical group that spent the pandemic pushing horse paste and malaria meds as quack COVID cures has a new crusade: suing the Pentagon to stop its vaccine mandate. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. While in Texas, the sailors offered descriptions of their jobs, in Florida, the biographical information goes into training, deployments and expertise, attempting to make the case that their involuntary discharges would be a huge loss. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action. This means that you do not need to prove that your injury was caused by a doctor or the vaccine company's mistake. The lawsuit attempts to overturn Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order that active-duty service members are required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Top Pentagon officials do not plan to alter their current "lawful orders" requiring the coronavirus shots for troops, unless they are granted waivers for medical or religious purposes, the. Produced by Will Reid , Rob Szypko . Air Force Officers Sue Over Vaccine Mandate Religious Exemption Denials Dr Terry Adirim, the government bureaucrat behind the infamous and unlawful Pentagon vaccine mandate, will "leave her post in the coming days," reports FedScoop. The number of exemptions has fluctuated over the last several months as some people decided to get the shots or leave the service instead of seeking accommodation. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? It is not yet clear how the various services will handle pending lawsuits that sprang up in the years following the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In one of many ongoing federal lawsuits challenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates across the country, Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a group . Two Eglin Air Force base officers are among the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. military personnel. The Department of the Air Force, which also issues guidance for the Space Force, has detailed it will be rescinding letters of admonishment, counseling or reprimand; records of individual counseling; nonjudicial punishments; and current involuntary discharge proceedings connected to vaccine refusal. Theyre not following federal law. According data submitted in the Florida case on Feb. 8: The services have declined to provide any details about the circumstances of the religious approvals, but both lawsuits allege that at least one of those Marines is due to leave service later this year. Nov. 2, 2021. Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. More than 8,400 troops were forced out of the military for refusing to obey a lawful order when they declined to get the vaccine. A U.S. Navy officer is suing the leaders of the Defense Department and the Navy because they have denied his waiver requests to exempt him from getting the mandated COVID-19 vaccine. By The Associated Press WASHINGTON A bill to rescind the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military and provide nearly $858 billion for national defense passed the House on. While powerful, that statement isnt true. But there may be good reason for that. On Jan. 10, the DOD officially rescinded its Aug. 24, 2021, and Nov. 30, 2021, memoranda mandating that all members of the U.S. military, including the National Guard and Ready Reserves, take the emergency use authorization COVID-19 shots or face discharge and other disciplinary measures. Their objections to the vaccine fall into one of four categories, according to their complaint, including opposition to abortion and the use of fetal cell lines in pharmaceutical development, belief that body modification violates their religious principles, direct, divine instruction not to receive the vaccine, or declining to inject trace amounts of animal cells into ones body.. death from COVID-19 vaccines administered after the declaration ends would be addressed in court under tort law unless the COVID-19 vaccines are added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP; 42 U.S.C. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. I think that a process that is not a sham looks a little bit something like the military regardless of what branch were talking about, takes an honest look and says okay, what is this persons job or their function? And both lawsuits include arguments that the plaintiffs prayed on the issue and came to the conclusion that vaccination would violate their principles. "Marines will defer to Combatant Command policies regarding deployments.". Thats really prohibited by the by the courts considering these types of cases. 2:14:14 Pentagon exploring back pay for troops kicked out of military over vaccine mandate. A federal appellate judge has dealt another blow to the military's coronavirus vaccine mandate by allowing a high-profile class-action lawsuit against the Air Force to move forward. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. The temporary restraining order means the military cannot punish airmen and Space Force guardians whose application for a religious exemption to one of the federally endorsed vaccines was denied or is still being processed. All rights reserved. The Pentagon directed all the services to "formally rescind any policies, directives, and guidance implementing those vaccination mandates as soon as possible, if they have not already done so," according to a Friday press release. The judge recognized that when he granted our [temporary restraining order] on Feb. 2 because toward the end, he said the public has an interest also in this because these are courageous skilled, individuals who are not easily replaceable, Staver said. 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Attorney General O'Connor Sues Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. So thats usually unwise, and so practitioners who are in front of the Supreme Court frequently like us, we usually know not to do that. Jared Serbu: I want to go back to what you said earlier about the process being a sham, because I want to try and draw how much of an issue that actually is, in these cases. And in one instance, I saw one of the head people for recruiting in the military said, Were having a really hard time identifying, basically people who are eligible to serve in the military. Jared Serbu: Got it. The US military has approved religious exemptions to its Covid-19 vaccine mandate for 15 service members out of approximately 16,000 requests, according to the latest data from the services. The first lawsuit to garner national attention, filed in Texas late last year, made a splash because its plaintiffs include SEALs, among the most elite of the militarys special operations forces. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. So for example, in a different context, somebody who says that theyre a Sabbath observer, and they cannot work on the Sabbath, but that theyre willing to trade ships with somebody, most of the cases Ive seen, theyre actually willing to take, what most people consider be a less favorable shift. Lawyers are waiting to see if a federal court in Georgia will stop the vaccine mandate nationwide through another class-action preliminary injunction as well. Judge tosses lawsuit over military vaccination mandate | Coronavirus And lets start by talking a bit about your clients, where they are in the Air Force vaccine exemption process and what led you to file the suit? There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. Religious freedom laws are set up to avoid a circumstance where the Navy, or the military or the government, is doing a faith test, to determine whether or not you really believe what youre supposed to believe, Griffin said. Same thing on airplanes, right? Assuming, maybe Im assuming too much. Just because the plaintiffs identify as a member of one religion or another doesnt mean they need to follow every tradition, according to Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, nor would they need to justify why they are religiously opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine in particular. Of course, that came because of a federal judges ruling. President Biden declared "the pandemic is over," yet is still pushing to discharge thousands of religious service members for their objections to taking the COVID-19 vaccine. Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. Are there major differences here? Air Force vaccine case will remain a class-action, appeals court rules So everywhere else in society has been able to figure this out, but our military hasnt because they take such an iron fisted, draconian approach to everything. The service branches must notify the Pentagon that they've made the changes no later than March 17. Have More Military Personnel Died from COVID Vaccines than Disease The Supreme Court is reviewing a legal shield that tech companies have long relied on to avoid liability for content on their platforms. The Pentagon formally dropped the requirement in January following a December vote in Congress to end the mandate. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. Plaintiffs, therefore, do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace, it reads. As of Tuesday, the Air Force had denied about 6,800 initial religious waiver requests and 3,600 appeals, and has not ruled on nearly 3,500 more cases. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. The Military Can't Get Troops to Take the Covid Vaccine. Come Again? Military leaders have long argued that to maintain unit health and troop readiness, troops have for decades been required to get as many as 17 vaccines, particularly those who are deploying overseas. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,OConnor said: As a brief preview, the vaccine mandate fails strict scrutiny. The lawyers for the biggest lawsuit against the service said that, after the Navy's policy change on deployment, they were "still assessing the impact of this policy on our Navy SEAL clients and more than 4000 class members," according to a statement released Thursday night. The military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. A vaccine lawsuit is filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, instead of regular state or federal courts like other drug injury claims.