This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,OConnor said: As a brief preview, the vaccine mandate fails strict scrutiny. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. This whole thing is really unprecedented, right? Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. 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. 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. On August 30, both Robert and Mulvihill asked U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore for a temporary restraining order regarding the vaccinations for military members who have already been. Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. So if they work Sunday afternoon, or if theyre scheduled to work a particular Sunday afternoon, they say, Well, Im a Sabbath observer on Sundays. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. All rights reserved. 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. Nov. 2, 2021. 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. Until any harm is remedied, according to Bruns, the case is still active. 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. Theyre basically saying, Nope, the vaccine is the only way that were going to allow you to continue to remain in the service. And one of the things I forgot to mention was the whole concept of natural immunity. 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. They argue that their. Theres been a lot of great saints that have gone to prison, so Im willing to do that.. Fox News U.S. While vials contain the same formula, some have made the argument that because providers are still giving the emergency-use Pfizer version, no one can be compelled to get vaccinated until the Comirnaty-labeled vials are in circulation. Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . 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. The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines do not need fetal cell lines for development or production but were tested on fetal cell lines replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to ensure their efficacy. Hey you have the Friday night shift, right? Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. President Joe Biden signed the. The . 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. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. The government really cant scrutinize belief very far.. The content of this website reflects the current thinking of the United States Department of Health and Human Services on the topics addressed and does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind the Department or the public. 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? Military service members have. 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. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. 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. 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. 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 . Need help accessing the FCC Public File due to a disability? 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. 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. Then in April, the WHO warned that. The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. The three coronavirus vaccines currently available in the United Statesthe Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and, as of Saturday, the Johnson & Johnson versionsare approved on "emergency use. 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. However, vaccine opponents note that commanders can still make decisions on how and whether to deploy unvaccinated troops, under a memo signed last month by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. . All told the lawsuit includes 26 SEALs from the original complaint, plus five special warfare combatant crewmen, five divers and one explosive ordnance disposal technician who joined the case in late January. 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. And I havent heard of a single Starbucks shutting down. We are hemorrhaging people like crazy, and were having a really hard time recruiting capable people to join our military. Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. 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. The Air Force number is probably in the same ballpark. Theyll accept that alternative and say, okay, you know, Im willing to do that instead. 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. Several lawsuits have been filed by sailors opposing the mandate and challenging the Navy's approach to reviewing the religious exemption requests. Theyre usually willing to accept that and say, look, yeah, Im happy to. The Air Force Department had received more than 12,000 religious exemption requests, denying over 3,000 of them and with roughly 2,000 still in adjudication. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? The U.S . 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. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. Starbucks, for example, doesnt have a vaccine requirement. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. And now people will be able to take the analysis Supreme Court used and say, Okay, the way that they analyzed this issue, that might give us some indication of how they would analyze other issues, right. And to say, basically, no, you will do this because we said so and if you dont, were gonna kick you out. To date, no members of the Army or Space Force have received a religious exemption, though nine airmen and three Marines have been approved. In fact, as of Dec. 17, the religious accommodation requests of at least 29 of the 35 naval plaintiffs had been flatly denied. 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 what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? 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. 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. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. The vaccine mandate divided Americans and has remained a contentious political issue. "I am proud of the efforts the Department of the Army has taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic," Wormuth said. 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 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. They had been told to get certain vaccines or other things without even be notified of a religious objection.. (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. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. Plaintiffs do not believe that staying true to their faith means exposing themselves or others to unnecessary risk, according to the filing. 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 . Any sailors who submitted a religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine can continue in the Navy under the injunction, according to NAVADMIN 102/22. 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. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. 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. This means that you do not need to prove that your injury was caused by a doctor or the vaccine company's mistake. The World Health Organization approved Covaxin for emergency use in late 2021, making it a viable option for airmen who object to the three main U.S. shots. Members face the same injury: violation of their constitutional freedom by defendants clear policy of discrimination against religious accommodation requests, wrote McFarland, of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio. 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? Theyre not pleasant. The Marine Corps separated 165 Marines over the past week due to their refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. How large is the class? 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. 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. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. However, in a strange turn of events, while Bolsonaro was eating Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes in Orlando, a group of Bolsonaristas (supporters of Bolsonaro) attacked the Brazilian Supreme Court, Congress, and Presidential Palace in Brasilia and called for a military coup.Lula blamed Bolsonaro personally for the attacks; Moraes quickly moved to suspend Brasilia's governor and security chief . Jared Serbu: This case seems remarkably similar to another case that I think First Liberty was also counsel on with a group of Navy SEALs before the very same judge, I believe too. Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. The "rule" and the ways it will be fought 1:43:40 How to fight the NFA and its unconstitutional rule about barrel lengths. 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? Overall, scientific evidence indicates that the benefits of vaccines largely . 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. The mandate treats comparable secular activity (e.g., medical exemptions) more favorably than religious activity. It took four years and was licensed in 1967. 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. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. If you want to swap with me, and they do that through the employer, or their employer offers that. [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. And they have different ranks, different different job responsibilities in the Air Force, a number of them are actually pilots in the Air Force. He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an injunction against discipline of an Air Force officer whose religious exemption had been denied. I know, off the top of my head, the number in the Navy is somewhere near 4,100. 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 World Health Organization approved Covaxin for emergency use in late 2021, making it a viable option for airmen who object to the three main U.S. shots. Feb. 23, 2023. This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal. 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. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,Judge Reed OConnor said. All rights reserved. Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. The Supreme Court is historically, they only address the legal issues that are brought before them, right. Mike Barry:Well, First Liberty Institute represents nine Air Force members who are challenging the Air Forces enforcement of its vaccine mandate. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.. At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. Everyone who joins the military must receive a slate of several vaccines to enter, including chickenpox, rubella and hepatitis A. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. 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. 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. And that is textbook discrimination, right? 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. A dozen U.S. Air Force officers have filed a lawsuit . There is no military exclusion from our Constitution. The military across the board is discriminating discriminating against people of faith. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. The population of people seeking religious accommodations now is fairly small.. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. The goal, representatives for the plaintiffs say, is to at least secure religious exemptions for their clients, but potentially see a Supreme Court ruling that would apply to all service members. Mike Berry, general counsel for First Liberty Institute,said: Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and Americas values . 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. msn back to msn home news Skip To Navigation Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. The only difference is really is that each branch of the military has their own internal regulations and policies for how they adjudicate these things. 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. 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. And the way that they are accomplishing their compelling interest is the least restrictive means on the persons religious beliefs. 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 Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Our lawsuit is certainly centered on religious exemption, but our lawsuit is broader than that to block the mandate in general of a non-FDA approved product, Staver said. Were pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. It was just a bunch of window dressing, on what was really a foregone conclusion of 100% of religious exemption requests were going to be disapproved, Berry said. Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine was developed and cleared for emergency use in eight months a fact . FILE - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Nov. 16, 2022.
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