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The vaccine mandate for military personnel was put in place in August, with a deadline of Sept. 15. More:Dark money group targets Oklahoma Gov. The Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that the sea service was allowed to reassign sailors who had refused the shot and filed exemption requests to nonoperational commands. I think we win under the First Amendment, because you have individualized exemptions with medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions.. The chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. And yet were short, were saying that were having a hard time recruiting people. Everyone who joins the military must receive a slate of several vaccines to enter, including chickenpox, rubella and hepatitis A. On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. Ryan Bruce, a Marine Corps spokesman, told Military.com. The U.S . 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. Earlier in the case: Eglin AFB officers part of federal court challenge to military vaccine mandate Related:Motion to halt military COVID-19 vaccine mandate fails; federal trial date set The 18 . I mean, all of it is just fraught with ideological purpose, and suspected purpose.. 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. All rights reserved. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. Theyre not following federal law. 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. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. The vaccine mandate divided Americans and has remained a contentious political issue. 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. 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. A timeline of when vaccines are due was left up to the . I know, off the top of my head, the number in the Navy is somewhere near 4,100. Under the law, theres no requirement that you adhere to a major or even recognized faith tradition, he said. The service members who filed the lawsuit represent more than 350 collective years of military service, and more than 100 combat deployments. 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. Starbucks, for example, doesnt have a vaccine requirement. (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. The quickest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. 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 . 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. The Navy already denied these exemptions, but O'Connor. The lawsuit attempts to overturn Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order that active-duty service members are required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. For a population accustomed to having very little power over their personal decisions where they live, what they wear, how they cut their hair, how much they weigh the opportunity to have some control over their medical decisions is an enormous discovery. The Supreme Court is reviewing a legal shield that tech companies have long relied on to avoid liability for content on their platforms. The Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in the case challenging the private-sector vaccine mandate,has asked the courtto invalidate the governments order. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Assuming, maybe Im assuming too much. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . 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. Court documents show that two plaintiffs in Doster v. Kendall took the two-dose Covaxin vaccine, created in India, to comply with the Pentagons requirement. Then in April, the WHO warned that supplier Bharat Biotech had stopped production because of deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. 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. Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. 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.. 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. Plaintiffs sincerely held religious beliefs that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that they are to glorify God with their bodies lays the foundation for everything they do, consume, or inject into their bodies, according to the Florida lawsuit. 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. 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. 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. Military service members have. Essentially, while the Marines applied for exemptions on religious grounds, they were already entitled to a much more straightforward administrative exemption for troops soon to leave service or not currently with their units, which is likely the reason they were approved. Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. The lawsuit also fails to mention an established precedent regarding vaccines in religious traditions. All rights reserved. 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. Right? Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. And I have yet to hear of a single flight being canceled because there was a COVID outbreak at 30,000 feet. They have similar objections to their Texas counterparts, from opposition to abortion to concerns about modifying their bodies. Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. Austin ends the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Ex-soldier, a neo-Nazi, gets 45 years for plot to ambush his own unit, Issues with the Armys Europe-based equipment trigger readiness alarms, Veterans Affairs drops mask requirement for all agency medical offices, How the Marine Corps is preparing for era of contested logistics, Tax scams How to report them Money Minute, Capitol Hill weighs action on two controversial topics: medical marijuana and abortion, Lockheed wins hypersonics contract | Defense Dollars, Go inside a secret nuclear fallout bunker sealed for decades, Perennial pilot shortage puts Air Force in precarious position, Pentagon again denies helping Ukraine attack targets inside Russia. 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. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. Plaintiffs do not believe that staying true to their faith means exposing themselves or others to unnecessary risk, according to the filing. Because of those peoples religious beliefs and religious convictions. Jared Serbu: Got it. Other plaintiffs focus not on the abortion issue, but on several Bible passages that refer to the body as a temple. 300aa-10-300aa-44). On Jan. 7,the Supreme Court is set to hear oral argumentsin a set of high-profile, consolidated cases on the Biden administrations vaccine mandates for private-sector entities with 100 or more employees, and for health care facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. To date, no members of the Army or Space Force have received a religious exemption, though nine airmen and three Marines have been approved. 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. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. 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. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. Technology Artificial Intelligence Ask the CIO Automation Big Data CIO News Cloud Computing Cybersecurity IT Modernization Open Data/Transparency Reporter's Notebook Defense On DoD Army Navy Air Force 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. The Air Force number is probably in the same ballpark. Feb. 23, 2023. Plaintiffs, therefore, do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace, it reads. Each of those shots also involves cell tissue derived from fetuses, as does one version of the rabies vaccine. Copyright 2023 Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. In the filing, attorneys argue that the plaintiffs are facing criminal conviction and dishonorable discharge, which would strip them of any veterans benefits. Those records are supposed to be cleared by March 31, according to the guidance. In the Navy, none of more than 4,000 religious exemptions had been approved, but there were about 252 temporary and 11 permanent medical exemptions. 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. Editors note: This story has been updated with information from the hearing. The lawsuit, in which 14 men and two women serving in the military are named as plaintiffs, names U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, three U.S. military service secretaries and other. Another plaintiff is fighting in court after trying to retire one alternative to vaccination the Air Force offered. Copyright 2023 Military.com. The Catholic Churchs policy on derived fetal cells has been clear for decades: the sin of abortion is so far removed in pharmaceutical development that a Catholic is not violating any principles by getting vaccinated. 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 problem here is that the government is simply unwilling to offer any compromises. 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. Mike Barry: Probably not at the Supreme Court level. Army leadership has been eyeing the possibility of a mandated COVID-19 vaccine this summer, including in a June information paper originating from the Army's health care operations directorate . There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. 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. The Pentagon has not provided any public updates or said when the formal policy will be issued. 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. 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? A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration's coronavirus vaccination mandates,. What the government will have to prove, in both cases, is that while its granted thousands of medical and administrative exemptions though many of those are temporary that the high bar for approval of religious exemptions is necessary for keeping the force healthy and deployable. President Joe Biden signed the. 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. CBC News reached out multiple times to Galati, who is listed as the spokesperson for the lawsuit in a press release issued by Vaccine Choice Canada. 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. But Im willing to do that. New family, former Corvias employee join lawsuit against Fort . Im happy to take that one from you. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For the Texas case, its more likely those sailors will receive religious exemptions, but that they wont necessarily change the way the military mandates vaccines or reviews exemptions. And well be back week after week.. Most of the plaintiffs express some sort of Christian faith, though the vast majority of denominations have no formal ban on vaccination. 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. The Marine Corps confirmed to a California congressman that two of those Marines were preparing to leave the service, while another one is doing a Training With Industry assignment. 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. 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. Staver, the attorney for the Florida plaintiffs, said his clients have shared their exemption rejection letters, which do not detail specifically why their requests werent approved. 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. "We are grateful for the support of the Legislature and the Governor in the State's efforts to block the . 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? In January of last year, a federal judge in Texas barred the Navy from taking any action against the Navy plaintiffs for being unvaccinated. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. They become the exception and not the norm. And really, the greatest harm here is not just to our members of the military who are suffering under this, but its actually to our nation. 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. If you want to swap with me, and they do that through the employer, or their employer offers that. 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 Marine Corps separated 165 Marines over the past week due to their refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 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. 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 . [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. Rabies shots are required only for some service members in certain career fields. They argue that their. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Its just under 4,100. And they recognize that theres almost a presumption of belief. The latest data from the military show that roughly 30,000 active-duty service members remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite a Defense Department mandate issued in August and deadlines. 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. All of the military services have released vaccine refusal policies, none of them involving judicial or non-judicial charges for simply staying unvaccinated. 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. The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. 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. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? 26 Feb 2023 11:38:25 The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. Court Delivers Win to Military Members Denied Religious Exemptions From Pentagon Vaccine Mandate, SCOTUS 101: Student Loans and Major Questions, Unpacking the Oral Arguments Against Bidens Student Loan Cancellation, Appeals Court Steals Show on ERA Amid Senate Panels Bid to Resurrect Dead Amendment, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments. The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. The military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. 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. 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. Right? Unlike VARES that is questioned a lot by the totally compromised medical establishment for accuracy, the U.S. military DMED (Defense Medical Epidemiology Database) reporting system is only submitted by military doctors and qualifies every single ICD (International Classification of Diseases) code in the military for Tricare billing to Humana Insurance covering over 6 million military personal. Mike Barry:No, I think what happens is they become much smaller cases, right? More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. 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. Until any harm is remedied, according to Bruns, the case is still active. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. Nearly 1,500 more people are exempt for medical or administrative reasons, such as severe allergic reactions or upcoming retirement. They dont offer what are, in the legal speak, we call advisory opinions. 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 three coronavirus vaccines currently available in the United Statesthe Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and, as of Saturday, the Johnson & Johnson versionsare approved on "emergency use. They include the small risk of myocarditis, which has anecdotally occurred in 1,626 U.S. residents out of more than 200 million fully vaccinated, with the highest risk in men under 24. VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by 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. 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 Florida case, in a 187-page complaint, takes measures much further. 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? 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. Many religious exemption applications have explained that the service members werent aware of the use of fetal stem cells prior to all of the controversy over the COVID-19 vaccine, but for the purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, they dont have to explain themselves. Dr Terry Adirim, the government bureaucrat behind the infamous and unlawful Pentagon vaccine mandate, will "leave her post in the coming days," reports FedScoop. US Military To Face COVID-19 Vaccine Lawsuit February 18, 2023. 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. Theyre not following their own regulations. A ruling in that case, issued this past November by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, upheld previous wins by attorneys representing the service members over the last year and took aim at the Air Force's process of approving religious exemptions. 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. 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. This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal. 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. The Navy has, however, granted medical exemption requests submitted by other personnel. It is a danger of, you know, the government saying, Well, hey, heres what your faith tradition teaches, you should follow that, " Griffin said.