Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. 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. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. 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. And well be back week after week.. The Pentagon formally dropped the requirement in January following a December vote in Congress to end the mandate. 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. 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. Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. Members of the U.S. military who haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19 are starting to face the consequences. Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. 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. Jared Serbu: Got it. The Marine Corps had fielded 3,500 religious waiver requests, granting three, in addition to about 250 medical waivers and 400 other administrative approvals. Right? 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. I think one of the militarys concerns is whats the limiting principle here? 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. 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. 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. Starbucks, for example, doesnt have a vaccine requirement. Dr Terry Adirim, the government bureaucrat behind the infamous and unlawful Pentagon vaccine mandate, will "leave her post in the coming days," reports FedScoop. 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. 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. [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. But their. 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 policy does allow commanders to "implement Health Protection Measures at any time or manner deemed necessary in support of operational safety and effectiveness." Theres been a lot of great saints that have gone to prison, so Im willing to do that.. Copyright 2023 Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. As part of the exemption process, service members are required to meet with a chaplain to work through their concerns. . Our military, I mean, you can open any news feed that you want. 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 . 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? 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. Military officials announced this week that, after months of warnings, they have . Mike Barry:Well, I mean, thats the beauty of the way that the law works, right? 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. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. 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. I dont think that the precedent is going to be that big of one, Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, said. death from COVID-19 vaccines administered after the declaration ends would be addressed in court under tort law unless the COVID-19 vaccines are added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP; 42 U.S.C. 2:14:14 Pentagon exploring back pay for troops kicked out of military over vaccine mandate. Ryan Bruce, a Marine Corps spokesman, told Military.com. The Florida case began with a Navy and Marine Corps officer in 2021, but has soon ballooned to 36 plaintiffs from all military branches as well as some civilian Defense Department employees. 26 Feb 2023 11:38:25 And I have yet to hear of a single flight being canceled because there was a COVID outbreak at 30,000 feet. Copyright 2023 Military.com. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. Its just under 4,100. Theres yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an injunction against discipline of an Air Force officer whose religious exemption had been denied. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. 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. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. 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. The service members sued this week to vacate a Pentagon vaccine mandate for all those in the military, arguing they face imminent harm if a court order isn't issued temporarily blocking the. The Navy already denied these exemptions, but O'Connor. More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. They argue that their. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? There is no military exclusion from our Constitution. Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years. Im happy to take that one from you. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,OConnor said: As a brief preview, the vaccine mandate fails strict scrutiny. 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. Were going from a 50-step process to a zero-step process? Duncan asked. 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. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.). If the court certifies the class does the class become all unvaccinated airmen or everyone whos been denied a religious exemption? Editors note: This story has been updated with information from the hearing. 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. 11. "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. 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. 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. 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. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. 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. Pfizer and Modernas mRNA products used cells replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to make sure the vaccines worked in human cells. Related: Navy Lifts COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Deployments. The service members who filed the lawsuit represent more than 350 collective years of military service, and more than 100 combat deployments. Judge Matthew McFarlands decision brings the case, Doster v. Kendall, closer to trial as a class-action lawsuit. Nearly 1,500 more people are exempt for medical or administrative reasons, such as severe allergic reactions or upcoming retirement. 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. 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. There was no indication when the judges would rule. 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? Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. Other federal court challenges to various COVID-19 vaccine mandates are ongoing. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. 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 . And thats why this is a sham.Jared Serbu: The Air Force case is a putative class action. Just because of the just incredibly political nature of, of all of it, from the virus to the vaccine to the mandates, Marshall Griffin, a retired Coast Guard judge advocate who now practices privately, told Military Times on Monday. 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. Only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is manufactured using fetal cell lines. A 5th Circuit panel rejected the Biden administrations request to block the judges order. DoD, for its part, settled its own policy with a memo from Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Terry Adirim last fall. Of course, that came because of a federal judges ruling. "Marines will defer to Combatant Command policies regarding deployments.". COVID-19 vaccines are proven to be very safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. 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. 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 first lawsuit to garner national attention, filed in Texas late last year, made a splash because its plaintiffs include SEALs, among the most elite of the militarys special operations forces. 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 Supreme Court is historically, they only address the legal issues that are brought before them, right. 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. Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. They have similar objections to their Texas counterparts, from opposition to abortion to concerns about modifying their bodies. 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 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 . So if you can find a way to accommodate somebodys religious beliefs, in a less burdensome way right, a way thats less obstructive or cumbersome on their religious exercise, then if the person is really sincere in their religious beliefs, theyll usually accept that. Theyre not following their own regulations. Telling Plaintiffs they must accept or receive a shot they oppose according to their sincerely held religious beliefs, or face court martial, dishonorable discharge, and other life altering disciplinary measures, disgraces the sacrifices these heroes have made, according to the lawsuit. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. 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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. Mike Barry:Well, First Liberty Institute represents nine Air Force members who are challenging the Air Forces enforcement of its vaccine mandate. 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. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. 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. 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. And yet were short, were saying that were having a hard time recruiting people. Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek declined to comment on ongoing litigation and how it may affect how the service handles religious accommodation requests. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action. The Texas case has smaller aspirations purposely, Berry said. Right? 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. New family, former Corvias employee join lawsuit against Fort . How large is the class? 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.. 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. At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. Although certain COVID-19 vaccines are associated with a slightly increased risk of blood clotting or heart inflammation, COVID-19 itself is associated with a higher rate of these and other conditions. Kevin Stitt with Fox News ads Trident Order #12 also implemented the COVID-19 vaccine mandate at the command level for Naval Special Warfare forces, setting a deadline of compliance for October 17, 2021," the SEALs' legal team . Military leaders have long argued that to maintain unit health and troop readiness, troops have for decades been required to get as many as 17 vaccines, particularly those who are deploying overseas. More than 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 since the virus began spreading in December 2019, and the U.S. has recorded around 89 million cases. 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. Still, the organization said Covaxin is still a safe and effective product. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. 300aa-10-300aa-44). Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. Indeed, Defendants employed such measures during the prior year before COVID-19 vaccines were made widely available.. 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. 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. Theyre not pleasant. The Florida case also expands the arguments past the religious exemption process, citing a handful of other arguments made by COVID-19 vaccine detractors. In fact, as of Dec. 17, the religious accommodation requests of at least 29 of the 35 naval plaintiffs had been flatly denied. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. President Joe Biden signed the. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. 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. Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. Each of those shots also involves cell tissue derived from fetuses, as does one version of the rabies vaccine. The service branches must notify the Pentagon that they've made the changes no later than March 17. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemned the mid-morning attack. Im willing to go through that. And usually when somebody is willing to go through those measures, that demonstrates a degree of sincerity. 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. 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. Were pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security. In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. 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. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. 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. 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. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. AFLDS has also pushed ivermectin and. The complaint also brings up the issue of Food and Drug Administration licensure. 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. Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. They become the exception and not the norm. 2:41 . I mean, all of it is just fraught with ideological purpose, and suspected purpose.. 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. 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. Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. 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. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? 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. "It hasn't done it yet. Johnson & Johnson uses cells replicated from a fetus aborted in 1985 to produce its vaccine, but those cells are filtered out from the final product. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. ), the Washington Post, and others. 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. 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. Until any harm is remedied, according to Bruns, the case is still active. Pope Francis has called vaccination against COVID-19 a moral obligation and an act of love., Frequently people let themselves be influenced by the ideology of the moment, often bolstered by baseless information or poorly documented facts, he said in January, adding that vaccines are not a magical means of healing, yet surely they represent, in addition to other treatments that need to be developed, the most reasonable solution for the prevention of the disease..