Unvaccinated members of the US military might have a fighting chance to keep their careers intact thanks to a recent ruling by a federal judge.
Breitbart reports that a decision by a US District Court Judge could put a dagger in President Joe Biden’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Last year, 35 Navy SEALs and three reservists filed a lawsuit against the US government with the hopes of securing a religious exemption to the mandates.
In his ruling, US District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas Reed O’Connor criticized the constitutionality of Biden’s sweeping mandates.
“Our nation asks the men and women in our military to serve, suffer, and sacrifice. But we do not ask them to lay aside their citizenry and give up the very rights they have sworn to protect,” wrote Judge O’Connor.
In his ruling, O’Connor stated that the COVID-19 pandemic “provides the government no license to abrogate” US citizens’ First Amendment rights and that its treatment of religious exemptions was “theater.”
“The mandate treats comparable secular activity (e.g., medical exemptions) more favorably than religious activity. First, the Navy has granted only secular exemptions—it has never granted a religious exemption from the vaccine,” wrote O’Connor.
“Second, even if the Navy were to grant a religious exemption, that exemption would still receive less favorable treatment than its secular counterparts. Those who receive religious exemptions are medically disqualified. Those who receive medical exemptions are not. But the activity itself—forgoing the vaccine—is identical.”
According to O’Connor, religious exemption requests were dead on arrival and denied before “the moment they begin.”
“The first fifteen steps require an administrator to update a prepared disapproval template with the requester’s name and rank. In essence, the Plaintiffs’ requests are denied the moment they begin. That prepared letter is then sent to seven offices for review. After those offices review the disapproval letter, the administrator packages the letter with other religious accommodation requests for final signature,” wrote O’Connor.
In June, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a bill to prohibit vaccine mandates for the Armed Forces after raising the issue with members of the military.
“Our bill, HR 3860, prevents federal funds from being used to require a member of the Armed Forces to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC has issued new warnings about the risk of heart inflammation developing in some recipients of the shots,” Massie tweeted about his bill.
