Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. 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. I think we win under the First Amendment, because you have individualized exemptions with medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions.. 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. Feb. 23, 2023. Their objections to the vaccine fall into one of four categories, according to their complaint, including opposition to abortion and the use of fetal cell lines in pharmaceutical development, belief that body modification violates their religious principles, direct, divine instruction not to receive the vaccine, or declining to inject trace amounts of animal cells into ones body.. 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. ), the Washington Post, and others. 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. And they have different ranks, different different job responsibilities in the Air Force, a number of them are actually pilots in the Air Force. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. Starbucks, for example, doesnt have a vaccine requirement. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. 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. 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. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. 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. (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. It cost millions to recruit, train new troops being booted for vaccine refusal, Dishonorable discharges for COVID vaccine refusal off the table as military separations begin, Officer faces court-martial for refusing mask mandate, COVID test, 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. Theyre not following federal law. Ross said such questions were speculative and not at issue in the case before the court. 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. It also allows them to restrict sailors' movement "in order to comply with host nation quarantine regulations.". Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. 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. The Florida filing also spends much more time on the biographies of the complainants. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. 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. Ryan Bruce, a Marine Corps spokesman, told Military.com. 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 vaccine mandate for military personnel was put in place in August, with a deadline of Sept. 15. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. Three of the event's witnesses doctors Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorf, and Marty Makary are part of a small group of medical experts known as the Norfolk Group. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. 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. "We will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all personnel to ensure readiness, facilitate mission accomplishment, and protect the force.". Another claimant, a Muslim Marine Corps captain, who said that his religious beliefs that require him to abstain from participation in that which is haram forbidden including the destruction and commoditization of innocent human life as exemplified by the use of human fetal cell lines derived from abortions, according to the lawsuit. Fox News U.S. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Until any harm is remedied, according to Bruns, the case is still active. If you want to swap with me, and they do that through the employer, or their employer offers that. In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . 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 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. 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. President Joe Biden signed the. I know, off the top of my head, the number in the Navy is somewhere near 4,100. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. Copyright 2023 Military.com. 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 The same day the Pentagon set the deadline for the services, several of the branches -- namely the Army and Air Force -- began issuing their guidance, which stated they would remove or correct adverse actions in records related to vaccine refusal. And theyre discriminating against people in the military. The Army also announced in a Friday press release that ongoing reviews of COVID vaccine exemption requests, records of soldiers who requested COVID vaccine exemptions, vaccine requirements for accessions or pre-commissioning programs, and travel restrictions based solely on COVID vaccination status will be removed or amended. "We are grateful for the support of the Legislature and the Governor in the State's efforts to block the . 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. This means that you do not need to prove that your injury was caused by a doctor or the vaccine company's mistake. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. A timeline of when vaccines are due was left up to the . The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. 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. "It hasn't done it yet. Same thing on airplanes, right? The decision sets the stage for a future trial or, possibly, the case winding its way up to the Supreme Court. The Navy lawsuit is one of several ongoing legal challenges to the military branches' policies on religious exemptions to the DoD COVID-19 vaccine mandate. And in one instance, I saw one of the head people for recruiting in the military said, Were having a really hard time identifying, basically people who are eligible to serve in the military. 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? To date, no members of the Army or Space Force have received a religious exemption, though nine airmen and three Marines have been approved. 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. 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. 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. If the court certifies the class does the class become all unvaccinated airmen or everyone whos been denied a religious exemption? And the way that they are accomplishing their compelling interest is the least restrictive means on the persons religious beliefs. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. "Former Soldiers may petition the Army Discharge Review Board and the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to request corrections to their records," the service's press release said. 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. So for example, in a different context, somebody who says that theyre a Sabbath observer, and they cannot work on the Sabbath, but that theyre willing to trade ships with somebody, most of the cases Ive seen, theyre actually willing to take, what most people consider be a less favorable shift. 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. 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. I dont think that the precedent is going to be that big of one, Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, said. Theres yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate. But nevertheless, how many, I fly almost on a weekly basis for my job. Those records are supposed to be cleared by March 31, according to the guidance. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. The group includes 14 men and two women. That includes protection from an adverse action while their exemptions are in process, a key part of the complaint, according to one of the attorneys on the lawsuit, which alleges that the plaintiffs have been removed from their jobs, flagged for promotion or otherwise hampered during the exemption process. 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.