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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. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. More:Dark money group targets Oklahoma Gov. The Navy has, however, granted medical exemption requests submitted by other personnel. The free exercise of religion, even in the military, it triggers the strongest protection available in the law.. Pentagon: Judge's halt of vaccine mandate for - Stars and Stripes 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. 300aa-10-300aa-44). 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? 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. . 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. Those records are supposed to be cleared by March 31, according to the guidance. Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. Mike Barry:Well, First Liberty Institute represents nine Air Force members who are challenging the Air Forces enforcement of its vaccine mandate. Federal judge expands exemption to military's COVID-19 vaccine mandate Other plaintiffs focus not on the abortion issue, but on several Bible passages that refer to the body as a temple. 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. Have More Military Personnel Died from COVID Vaccines than Disease 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 . 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. The complaint also brings up the issue of Food and Drug Administration licensure. The Marine Corps had fielded 3,500 religious waiver requests, granting three, in addition to about 250 medical waivers and 400 other administrative approvals. Subscribe on PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. 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. The Supreme Court is historically, they only address the legal issues that are brought before them, right. 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. 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.. But if they eventually get consolidated in the Supreme Court grants cert [writs of certiorari] on something that considers the issue more broadly, would you expect that well get a case or a ruling that goes beyond the narrow issue of vaccines and gives the military some guidance as to how RFRA and broader religious accommodation issues apply to the military? [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. So that, right now that number is several thousand. 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. The government has since filed a notice that it plans to appeal the decision. Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. Military service members have. But Islamic tradition does not discourage vaccination, and doesnt forbid abortion before 17 weeks gestation, with even more leeway if the health of the mother is in jeopardy or if there are life-threatening fetal abnormalities. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. 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. 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. But nevertheless, how many, I fly almost on a weekly basis for my job. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? 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. Theres been a lot of great saints that have gone to prison, so Im willing to do that.. All rights reserved. 16Jan23 FAA's Feeble Lie Denying the Hack That Grounded ALL 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. 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. Details emerge of Vaccine Choice Canada lawsuit over coronavirus - CBC 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 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. Jared Serbu: Yeah, theres a ton. Im willing to go through that. And usually when somebody is willing to go through those measures, that demonstrates a degree of sincerity. The Florida filing also spends much more time on the biographies of the complainants. In response to Military.com stating that the COVID-19 "vaccines have some rare side effects, including heart inflammation that has affected at least 22 service members, according to a study from the JAMA Network," an attorney working with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and whistle blowers in the U.S. military are pushing back against . Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. The Coast Guard issued guidance Monday announcing it was "taking action to remove" all administrative remark entries related to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate from reserve and active-duty records. The Military Can't Get Troops to Take the Covid Vaccine. Come Again? 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. DOD Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., US troops refusing the COVID-19 vaccine: What happens to them? A timeline of when vaccines are due was left up to the . He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . Pfizer and Modernas mRNA products used cells replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to make sure the vaccines worked in human cells. 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. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. 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. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years. U.S. Pushes Back Against Military Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. Attorneys for the unvaccinated Navy personnel argued in briefs to the 5th Circuit that Austins memo and other Defense Department actions show that the Navy still intends to treat unvaccinated personnel like second-class citizens because of their religious beliefs.. The prospect of dishonorable discharges has been a concern for some against vaccine mandates, but that type of discharge can only be handed down through a court-martial conviction. In the Ohio case, 2nd Lt. 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 is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. 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. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. The Pentagon has not provided any public updates or said when the formal policy will be issued. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. 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. 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. Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. 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 And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. 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 . 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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. FILE - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Nov. 16, 2022. The Pentagon formally dropped the requirement in January following a December vote in Congress to end the mandate. Navy officer sues DOD, Navy leaders over COVID vaccine - Navy Times 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.