On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. The U.S . But nevertheless, how many, I fly almost on a weekly basis for my job. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action. Theyre not following their own regulations. And the way that they are accomplishing their compelling interest is the least restrictive means on the persons religious beliefs. Same thing on airplanes, right? 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. Nearly 1,500 more people are exempt for medical or administrative reasons, such as severe allergic reactions or upcoming retirement. We are hemorrhaging people like crazy, and were having a really hard time recruiting capable people to join our military. The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. 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. 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. I dont think that the precedent is going to be that big of one, Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, said. A dozen U.S. Air Force officers have filed a lawsuit . 26 Feb 2023 11:38:25 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: Got it. 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. But Im willing to do that. Kevin Stitt has pushed back on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the military that would apply to the Oklahoma National Guard. 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. The military across the board is discriminating discriminating against people of faith. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. 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. 2:41 . Another lawsuit, first filed by troops attached to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has led to temporary protections for around 10,000 active-duty, Active Reserve, reserve and National Guard members of the Air Force and Space Force who requested a religious exemption from the COVID vaccine, although only those who have been denied an exemption would face immediate action. Night shifts arent popular, especially on Friday night, and things like that. So everywhere else in society has been able to figure this out, but our military hasnt because they take such an iron fisted, draconian approach to everything. A 5th Circuit panel rejected the Biden administrations request to block the judges order. 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. 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. (Susan Walsh/AP, File). Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. Copyright 2023 Military.com. Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. 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? So our lawsuit is really predicated on on the argument that this is all a sham, that the Air Force is not following the Constitution. And yet were short, were saying that were having a hard time recruiting people. And thats why this is a sham.Jared Serbu: The Air Force case is a putative class action. The Army reported about 1,300 religious requests, none of which have been approved, as well as six medical exemptions. 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. This means that you do not need to prove that your injury was caused by a doctor or the vaccine company's mistake. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. The Pentagon has not provided any public updates or said when the formal policy will be issued. 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. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? In fact, as of Dec. 17, the religious accommodation requests of at least 29 of the 35 naval plaintiffs had been flatly denied. How large is the class? The lawyers for the biggest lawsuit against the service said that, after the Navy's policy change on deployment, they were "still assessing the impact of this policy on our Navy SEAL clients and more than 4000 class members," according to a statement released Thursday night. VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,Judge Reed OConnor said. Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . 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. ), the Washington Post, and others. The Supreme Court is reviewing a legal shield that tech companies have long relied on to avoid liability for content on their platforms. 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. 300aa-10-300aa-44). Under the law, theres no requirement that you adhere to a major or even recognized faith tradition, he said. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.). 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. 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. A federal judge in Cincinnati has expanded a temporary exemption to a Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate to cover thousands of service members in the U.S. Air Force and Space Force,. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. The problem here is that the government is simply unwilling to offer any compromises. Plaintiffs, therefore, do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace, it reads. All of the military services have released vaccine refusal policies, none of them involving judicial or non-judicial charges for simply staying unvaccinated. "We will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all personnel to ensure readiness, facilitate mission accomplishment, and protect the force.". Each of those shots also involves cell tissue derived from fetuses, as does one version of the rabies vaccine. 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. The fetal cells were not used to produce either vaccine, National Geographic reported last fall. Two staff sergeants, one Army, one Marine, have filed a lawsuit against three federal agencies, challenging plans to conduct mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations of military troops. Ross said such questions were speculative and not at issue in the case before the court. And theyre discriminating against people in the military. From this foundation they make studied and reasonable decisions about what is good and what is not good or may not be good for their bodies.. Related: Navy Lifts COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Deployments. At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. 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. Were pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security. 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. "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. The primary protest centers around fetal stem cells, which may or may not have originated with an aborted pregnancy. And I havent heard of a single Starbucks shutting down. Another plaintiff is fighting in court after trying to retire one alternative to vaccination the Air Force offered. Still, the organization said Covaxin is still a safe and effective product. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Until any harm is remedied, according to Bruns, the case is still active. The story seems pretty similar to whats going on with these airmen. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. 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. 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. Otherwise, the courts are going to be flooded with thousands of lawsuits, he said. It is a danger of, you know, the government saying, Well, hey, heres what your faith tradition teaches, you should follow that, " Griffin said. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. 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. 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? The population of people seeking religious accommodations now is fairly small.. 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. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. Additionally, "promotion records will be corrected by the [Department of the Air Force] who will remove or redact all adverse actions related to vaccine refusal," according to a Friday press release. 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. 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 . And at least in the Starbucks is that Ive been in recently where theyve been packed in like sardines. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. 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. 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