Several lawsuits have been filed by sailors opposing the mandate and challenging the Navy's approach to reviewing the religious exemption requests. U.S. military is discharging service members who refuse to get Feb. 23, 2023. A Ruling That Could End the Internet as We Know It - The New York Times Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. 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. 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. Plaintiffs, therefore, do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace, it reads. Its just under 4,100. The vaccine mandate for military personnel was put in place in August, with a deadline of Sept. 15. 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? -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. 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. Mike Barry:Well, First Liberty Institute represents nine Air Force members who are challenging the Air Forces enforcement of its vaccine mandate. 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. So our lawsuit is really predicated on on the argument that this is all a sham, that the Air Force is not following the Constitution. They argue that their. Have More Military Personnel Died from COVID Vaccines than Disease Rabies shots are required only for some service members in certain career fields. The Florida filing also spends much more time on the biographies of the complainants. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. Navy quietly rolled back punishments for SEALs seeking religious 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. Two Service Members Sue Feds Over Military COVID Vaccine - Newsweek President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemned the mid-morning attack. Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. But Im willing to do that. "Marines will defer to Combatant Command policies regarding deployments.". 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. Both cases are in a wait-and-see phase, where judges have granted injunctions against any discipline for vaccine refusal while the government responds to requests for information. Then in April, the WHO warned that. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution. Simply put, no actual fetal cells were used in the development of any of the COVID-19 vaccines the cells in question were replicated by scientists, in labs, from tissue harvested previously. Thats really prohibited by the by the courts considering these types of cases. The lawsuit also fails to mention an established precedent regarding vaccines in religious traditions. 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.. U.S. Military Service Members with Natural Immunity File Lawsuit over COVID Vaccine Mandate. 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. 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. Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. When they inquired about seeking religious accommodation for the vaccine, the Navy informed many of them that they could face court-martial or involuntary separation if they refused to take the vaccine. [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. The government responded to the lawsuit by pointing out that immunization requirements are common in the military beginning with the Continental Army under George Washington and that vaccines and are essential to preventing the transmission of diseases in close quarters. The military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. The Navy on Wednesday announced it had granted one waiver to a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, a non-drilling service member, who would have to get vaccinated should he or she come on orders. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. Biden appointee behind unlawful military vaccine mandate to step down. Pfizer pushes to intervene in lawsuit seeking COVID vaccine information Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . Theyre usually willing to accept that and say, look, yeah, Im happy to. Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. All of the military services have released vaccine refusal policies, none of them involving judicial or non-judicial charges for simply staying unvaccinated. More than a dozen unidentified U.S. service members have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Defense Department's COVID-19 vaccine order, saying they have natural immunity from. Of course, that came because of a federal judges ruling. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. 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. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. Theres a case to be made for turning these lawsuits into class action matters, Staver said, so that individual service members dont have to sue or just another case. That means that this is quickly becoming a national security concern. 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. 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. Military members opposed to vaccines seek legal help | wusa9.com US Military To Face COVID-19 Vaccine Lawsuit February 18, 2023 Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. US troops refusing the COVID-19 vaccine: What happens to them? 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 law says that sincerely held religious beliefs are to be taken at face value. Navy officer sues DOD, Navy leaders over COVID vaccine - Navy Times "This vaccine mandate is unlawful and does not reflect the Land of the Free," said General O'Connor. And they recognize that theres almost a presumption of belief. Pentagon: Judge's halt of vaccine mandate for - Stars and Stripes The policy does allow commanders to "implement Health Protection Measures at any time or manner deemed necessary in support of operational safety and effectiveness." The government has recently ordered imminent punitive action against those men and women of faith who cannot in good conscience take these experimental vaccines, and this order stops the government in its tracks, Adam Hochschild, a lawyer with the Thomas More Society and lead counsel in Air Force Officer v. Austin, said in a release. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. The group includes 14 men and two women. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. 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. Army brigade surgeon claims in lawsuit vaccines are made with Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. Another plaintiff is fighting in court after trying to retire one alternative to vaccination the Air Force offered. More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. When you treat people who have a medical exemption for more favorably than you treat somebody who has a religious exemption, that is textbook discrimination, and thats whats happening. 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. 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. Pfizer Inc wants to intervene in a Texas federal lawsuit seeking information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used in licensing the company's COVID-19 vaccine, a litigation move that . Here's the Army rule for vaccine refusals, which service leaders Like the other service branches, the Navy required all active-duty service members to be fully vaccinated before Nov. 28 or risk a full range of disciplinary action. Im willing to go through that. And usually when somebody is willing to go through those measures, that demonstrates a degree of sincerity. Details emerge of Vaccine Choice Canada lawsuit over coronavirus - CBC VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by 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. Judge grants relief to Navy SEALs who refused coronavirus vaccine, sued The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. 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.. And so all of them have requested religious accommodations from the vaccine mandate, which is, of course, something that DoD regulations and even federal law, clearly permit and allow. 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. The latest lawsuit challenging DoD's COVID-19 vaccine mandate says the Air Force's process makes religious accommodations almost impossible to get. 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. 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? The latest class action targets the Air Forces religious accommodation process, arguing that process is set up in such a way that getting a religious exemption to the vaccine is almost impossible. 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. They argue that their 1st Amendment rights are being infringed upon, because their sincerely held religious beliefs prevent them from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Why is the DoD ignoring natural immunity when the CDC and other epidemiologists and medical experts have all generally agreed natural immunity is a real thing. Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. Department of Justice seeks dismissal of military vaccine lawsuit 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. 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 youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine was developed and cleared for emergency use in eight months a fact . Jared Serbu: Last thing, theres a lot of these vaccine cases, even just military vaccine cases floating around in various district courts and circuits the moment. The lawsuits do not offer details from these meetings, nor do they state that the plaintiffs consulted with experts in their own religious communities before making their decisions to refuse vaccination. DOD Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., In one of manyongoing federal lawsuitschallenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates across the country, Judge Reed OConnor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a group of Navy SEALs and Naval Special Warfare personnel a resounding victory Jan. 3 inU.S. Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden. Staver believes the Florida case case has a good chance of making it to the Supreme Court, potentially invalidating all government mandates for COVID-19 vaccination. Other federal court challenges to various COVID-19 vaccine mandates are ongoing. The question is, whats the bigger risk to readiness: Discharging skilled, expensively trained service members for refusing to get vaccinated, or allowing them to continue serving with the potential to become infected with COVID-19, experience serious illness and potentially long-lasting side effects? There was no indication when the judges would rule. Military Grants Few Coronavirus Vaccine Exemptions as Deadlines Loom Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. But their. 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 chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Thomas Bruns, a Cincinnati-based attorney with Bruns, Connell, Vollmar & Armstrong representing the service members, told Military.com on Monday that the service members in that case are promised full relief from any harms caused by the mandate. And so of course, that means you have to bring different lawsuits on behalf of people, depending on what branch of the military that theyre in. 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? Just three days later, he issued a far more sweeping order granting 4,095 service members a religious exemption from the COVID vaccine. And our clients are, theyre stationed in various locations, quite a few of them are here in Texas. And to say, basically, no, you will do this because we said so and if you dont, were gonna kick you out. 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. 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. I mean, all of it is just fraught with ideological purpose, and suspected purpose.. 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 . DoD, for its part, settled its own policy with a memo from Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Terry Adirim last fall. 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. 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. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. The Navy already denied these exemptions, but O'Connor. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action.
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