And then if you come back and you say, oh, no, but my exemption is a medical exemption [see Contraindications and Precautions]not a religious exemption, then the military says, Oh, well, in that case, we welcome you with open arms. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. The prospect of dishonorable discharges has been a concern for some against vaccine mandates, but that type of discharge can only be handed down through a court-martial conviction. 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. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. More than 60 service members have joined lawsuits against the U.S. government, alleging that the military's process for awarding religious vaccine exemptions is a sham. WASHINGTON Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none . Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. Underthat law, the government may substantially burden a persons exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that burden is (1) in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest. 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. Read Next: The Navy's Top Enlisted Sailor Is Ready for You to Ask Him Anything. The NAVADMIN, referencing the injunction, prevents adverse action against sailors who will not get the COVID-19 vaccine and submitted a religious exemptions request. More than 60 service members have joined lawsuits against the U.S. government, alleging that the militarys process for awarding religious vaccine exemptions is a sham. And in some cases, according to some reports, its even more durable than the vaccine and you dont have to get boosters and things like that. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. "I am proud of the efforts the Department of the Army has taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic," Wormuth said. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. Mike Barry:No, really, I mean, this is happening across the entire Department of Defense. In other words, its usually ill-advised to take an opinion on one subject or one issue, and then try to extrapolate and say and that and say, Well, that should apply across the board to all issues. Based on his Roman Catholic Christian faith and absolute opposition to abortion, he cannot accept a vaccine that has been manufactured, or whose efficacy has been tested and proved, using aborted fetal cells, the Florida lawsuit alleges, on behalf of a Coast Guard pilot. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action. The Pentagon has not provided any public updates or said when the formal policy will be issued. And is there somewhere else we can assign them where maybe theyre at less risk of of COVID transmission or they start looking at the data, right, the actual CDC data and the COVID day they start look kicking it around and saying, You know what? A timeline of when vaccines are due was left up to the . Lawmakers expressed frustration with the news . Law firms Latham & Watkins LLP Follow Siri & Glimstad LLP (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, facing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking a vast trove of data. Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. Theres been a lot of great saints that have gone to prison, so Im willing to do that.. (U.S. Navy) Two service members filed a class action lawsuit against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to halt a mandate that all troops receive the coronavirus vaccine and create an exemption. 300aa-10-300aa-44). The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Theres yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate. I think we win under the First Amendment, because you have individualized exemptions with medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions.. At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. 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. Kevin Stitt with Fox News ads Because how do you avoid getting to the point where anyone can deny or refuse any lawful order by claiming that they have a sincerely held religious belief that would be encumbered by it? By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square) Military leaders will testify on Tuesday before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee about the impact of the Department of Defense's COVID-19 vaccine mandate on DOD employees and military service members. In the Ohio case, 2nd Lt. Hunter Doster of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and more than a dozen other plaintiffs argue the Air Force is forcing them to lose their livelihoods or violate their religious beliefs by receiving vaccines they say are impure or have ties to abortion. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? All the things that, you know, that the Navy was doing to harass and punish sailors we basically wanted that to all stop, Mike Berry, a former Marine judge advocate and now vice president at First Liberty Institute, which represents the Texas plaintiffs, told Military Times on Wednesday. In fact, as of Dec. 17, the religious accommodation requests of at least 29 of the 35 naval plaintiffs had been flatly denied. They argue that their. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act sets a low bar for proving ones religious beliefs, in that if someone states them, they are assumed to be sincere. The Florida case, in a 187-page complaint, takes measures much further. Nearly 1,500 more people are exempt for medical or administrative reasons, such as severe allergic reactions or upcoming retirement. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. All rights reserved. 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? 26 Feb 2023 11:38:25 Circuit Court of Appeals panel that federal court injunctions against the mandate are still needed, in part because decisions on deployments and assignments can still be made based on vaccination status. The next stop in the litigation is likely to be an appeal by the Department of Defense and the Biden administration to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. NEW ORLEANS Federal appeals court judges closely questioned a Biden administration attorney Monday on the consequences military personnel might face for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations, even though Bidens vaccine mandate for military personnel has been rescinded. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. He has criticized the Air Force for what he sees as a failure to carefully consider the merits of each exemption request and instead sweepingly reject them. NEW ORLEANS Federal appeals court judges closely questioned a Biden administration attorney Monday on the consequences military personnel might face for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations, even. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members. Are there major differences here? There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. The lawsuit filed by Air Force members and other federal employees claims that "the US Constitution and numerous federal laws make it unlawful to compel persons to be vaccinated." The plaintiffs. The story seems pretty similar to whats going on with these airmen. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Im happy to take that one from you. The Biden Administration has previously admitted that it is not the federal government's role to enforce vaccine mandates. About 97% of the Department of the Air Force is fully vaccinated, though a larger share of active duty airmen and guardians have gotten the jab compared to their Guard and Reserve counterparts. You got a preliminary injunction in that case and a favorable ruling from the Fifth Circuit. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. The group includes 14 men and two women. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. The judge's decision impacts 200 to 300 servicemembers stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, who filed the lawsuit against top military leaders back in February. Another plaintiff is fighting in court after trying to retire one alternative to vaccination the Air Force offered. The government really cant scrutinize belief very far.. Other plaintiffs focus not on the abortion issue, but on several Bible passages that refer to the body as a temple. Also missing from the lawsuits are any new religious conversion, or simply the possibility that they were previously unaware of the role of replicated fetal stem cells in pharmaceutical development, that would explain why they never objected to any vaccines or medications before. The population of people seeking religious accommodations now is fairly small.. 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. But the DoD is just saying Nope, we wont even recognize that we wont even consider it, even though they consider natural immunity for other communicable diseases and infections and things like that. Complainants push back on the militarys position that remaining unvaccinated endangers the force and undermines national security, since the vast majority of troops have received all of a one- or two-shot regimen. Nor do they mention the host of common medications that also use these stem cells, including Tylenol, Advil/Motrin, aspirin, Tums, Pepto Bismol, Benadryl, Sudafed and Claritin. Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. Given the prevailing public health guidelines and the state of the virus, there is currently no intention to require universal vaccination of all service members, Ross said. Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan noted that the administration had only reluctantly ended the military mandate after December congressional action, but Ross assured the panel that there are no plans to bring back the requirement. All of the military services are currently reworking their policies to adjust separation and promotion records for service members who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, after the Pentagon ended the inoculation mandate last month. We are hemorrhaging people like crazy, and were having a really hard time recruiting capable people to join our military. And to say, basically, no, you will do this because we said so and if you dont, were gonna kick you out. More than 1.14 million out of the 1.4 million active military members have been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to DoD data. Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. The Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in the case challenging the private-sector vaccine mandate,has asked the courtto invalidate the governments order. WASHINGTON (AP) The military services are still reviewing possible discipline of troops who refused the order to get the COVID-19 vaccine, defense officials told Congress on Tuesday, and they provided few details on how many of those who were forced out of the military would like to return. 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. Right? WASHINGTON (AP) 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 Thursday as. Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. 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The primary protest centers around fetal stem cells, which may or may not have originated with an aborted pregnancy. How large is the class? 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. So I think that if one of these cases does end up in front of the Supreme Court, it will probably be addressed just on the narrow vaccine issue. ), the Washington Post, and others. 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. They will also have to make the case that vaccinating, or involuntarily discharging, every service member is the least restrictive means of keeping the force safe from COVID-19, rather than enforcing masking or social distancing or in some cases, grandfathering in troops who acquired some immunity after catching COVID-19. The government has since filed a notice that it plans to appeal the decision. OConnormade note of thisin his order, calling the process for seeking a religious exemption nothing more than theater, stating that the Navy merely rubber-stamps each denial, and stressing that the record overwhelmingly demonstrates that the Navys religious-accommodation process is an exercise in futility.. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Their lawyers have called a sham with applications being categorically denied., The Defense Department denied the process was onerous and said the Navy has a compelling interest in requiring vaccinations for personnel who often operate for long periods in confined spaces that are ripe breeding grounds for respiratory illnesses.. Need help accessing the FCC Public File due to a disability? In a hypothetical alternate universe where it were the Navy and the Air Force, the rest of the services had an exemption process or a waiver process that did look more credible to you and to the court, do you lose these cases? On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. Military service members have. 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. And they recognize that theres almost a presumption of belief. The lawsuit is one of two that have grabbed headlines in recent months, as the military has imposed mandatory vaccination deadlines that have since lapsed for all of the services and their components, save the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. The problem here is that the government is simply unwilling to offer any compromises. The lawsuit also fails to mention an established precedent regarding vaccines in religious traditions. The fetal cells were not used to produce either vaccine, National Geographic reported last fall. Several lawsuits have been filed by sailors opposing the mandate and challenging the Navy's approach to reviewing the religious exemption requests. Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. And well be back week after week.. A dozen U.S. Air Force officers have filed a lawsuit . The soldier and Marine also want their case escalated into a class action lawsuit to take in other military personnel plus Department of Defense contractors. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Federal News Network's DoD Cloud Exchange: From enterprise to the tactical edge discover how the Defense Department and military services intend to advance their use of cloud technologies. Then in April, the WHO warned that supplier Bharat Biotech had stopped production because of deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.. 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Pfizer and Modernas mRNA products used cells replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to make sure the vaccines worked in human cells. Additionally, "promotion records will be corrected by the [Department of the Air Force] who will remove or redact all adverse actions related to vaccine refusal," according to a Friday press release. And theyre discriminating against people in the military. Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. DOD Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., DoD, for its part, settled its own policy with a memo from Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Terry Adirim last fall. The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. Through much prayer and reflection, Plaintiffs have sought wisdom, understanding, and guidance on the proper decisions to make concerning these COVID-19 vaccines, and Plaintiffs have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that accepting any of the three currently available vaccines is against the teachings of Scripture and would be a sin, according to a Florida lawsuit first filed in late 2021, then amended on Feb. 7 with additional plaintiffs. 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. 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. 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. In January of last year, a federal judge in Texas barred the Navy from taking any action against the Navy plaintiffs for being unvaccinated. But the administration won at least a temporary, partial victory last March when the Supreme Court approved a partial stay. The order allowed the Navy to consider the sailors vaccination status in making decisions on deployment, assignment and other operational issues while the case plays out. Plaintiffs do not believe that staying true to their faith means exposing themselves or others to unnecessary risk, according to the filing. 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 Texas lawsuit also states the plaintiffs are willing to continue to wear masks, social distance and take mandatory COVID-19 tests, rather than get vaccinated. Total exemptions granted in the Air Force included about 1,500 temporary medical exemptions and 2,300 administrative waivers, which includes the nine religious approvals. Our military, I mean, you can open any news feed that you want. The Navy SEALS filed their lawsuit in November of 2021, describing what they saw as a cumbersome 50-step process to obtain religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. OConnor ruled that the blanket denial of their religious waiver requests amounted to a violation of the service members rights under the First Amendment andthe Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 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The service members who filed the lawsuit represent more than 350 collective years of military service, and more than 100 combat deployments. We took a very intentional approach of maintaining a laser-like focus on religious liberty, because we believe that that is the strongest legal basis, he said. Its just under 4,100. Is there any assurance on the record, that there will be no deployment decisions based on vaccination? Judge James Ho, one of three judges hearing the case asked Department of Justice lawyer Casen Ross. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. AFLDS has also pushed ivermectin and. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. While the Jan. 3 victory applies only to the named naval personnel in the lawsuit and not to the entire vaccine mandate issued by the Department of Defense, for religious freedom advocates and faithful Americans, the victory is a breath of fresh air and a much-needed reminder that individuals who have selflessly committed themselves to the defense of the Constitution and its enshrined liberties are sometimes the very people whose rights need defending the most. On Monday, Heather Hacker, an attorney for the Navy personnel, said the situation could be seen as worse now for them now that the older mandate policy has been rescinded, because current policy does not provide for a sailors religious objections to the vaccine to be considered when deployment or assignment decisions are made. Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. The Navy granted another 500 administrative exemptions, including temporary waivers for sailors planning to leave the service or in the middle of a permanent change-of-station move, for example. 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. The chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. And at least in the Starbucks is that Ive been in recently where theyve been packed in like sardines. Its really the same thing in the military context with this vaccine, where theyre saying, Look, teleworking or, doing a lot of these other measures, right, social distancing, masking, testing, whatever the case might be. The Navy already denied these exemptions, but O'Connor. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Were going from a 50-step process to a zero-step process? Duncan asked. Theyre not following federal law. In response to Military.com stating that the COVID-19 "vaccines have some rare side effects, including heart inflammation that has affected at least 22 service members, according to a study from the JAMA Network," an attorney working with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and whistle blowers in the U.S. military are pushing back against . Members of the U.S. military who haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19 are starting to face the consequences. But if they eventually get consolidated in the Supreme Court grants cert [writs of certiorari] on something that considers the issue more broadly, would you expect that well get a case or a ruling that goes beyond the narrow issue of vaccines and gives the military some guidance as to how RFRA and broader religious accommodation issues apply to the military? Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. Lt. Col. Edward Stapanon, a Catholic instructor pilot at the 435th Fighter Training Squadron in Texas, said he requested retirement twice but was turned down because he hasnt finished out an extension of his active duty service commitment that ends in 2024.