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. 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. 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 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. More than 800 unvaccinated service members have been ousted from the Air Force so far. The lawsuit attempts to overturn Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order that active-duty service members are required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 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But what we cant do is say, well, because they ruled this way, in this case, this is how theyre going to rule in all cases. 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. The complaint also brings up the issue of Food and Drug Administration licensure. New family, former Corvias employee join lawsuit against Fort . Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. The Marine Corps had fielded 3,500 religious waiver requests, granting three, in addition to about 250 medical waivers and 400 other administrative approvals. The lawsuits dont mention other vaccines these troops received either in their childhoods or during service the chicken pox, rubella and hepatitis A vaccines are all required that used descendent fetal cells in development. The service branches must notify the Pentagon that they've made the changes no later than March 17. A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration's coronavirus vaccination mandates,. Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . 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. I think one of the militarys concerns is whats the limiting principle here? The judge recognized that when he granted our [temporary restraining order] on Feb. 2 because toward the end, he said the public has an interest also in this because these are courageous skilled, individuals who are not easily replaceable, Staver said. Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek declined to comment on ongoing litigation and how it may affect how the service handles religious accommodation requests. 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. Overall, scientific evidence indicates that the benefits of vaccines largely . Thats really prohibited by the by the courts considering these types of cases. In January of last year, a federal judge in Texas barred the Navy from taking any action against the Navy plaintiffs for being unvaccinated. Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. And well be back week after week.. Right? The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. "We will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all personnel to ensure readiness, facilitate mission accomplishment, and protect the force.". The vaccine mandate divided Americans and has remained a contentious political issue. Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years. The primary protest centers around fetal stem cells, which may or may not have originated with an aborted pregnancy. The Air Force Department had received more than 12,000 religious exemption requests, denying over 3,000 of them and with roughly 2,000 still in adjudication. The lawsuit emerges as the latest development in an ongoing fight between state leaders and the federal government as Gov. So I think that if one of these cases does end up in front of the Supreme Court, it will probably be addressed just on the narrow vaccine issue. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. But Im willing to do that. A U.S. Navy officer is suing the leaders of the Defense Department and the Navy because they have denied his waiver requests to exempt him from getting the mandated COVID-19 vaccine. The latest class action targets the Air Forces religious accommodation process, arguing that process is set up in such a way that getting a religious exemption to the vaccine is almost impossible. 11. The first military COVID-19 vaccine mandate will take effect in November. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. When you treat people who have a medical exemption for more favorably than you treat somebody who has a religious exemption, that is textbook discrimination, and thats whats happening. On Jan. 10, the DOD officially rescinded its Aug. 24, 2021, and Nov. 30, 2021, memoranda mandating that all members of the U.S. military, including the National Guard and Ready Reserves, take the emergency use authorization COVID-19 shots or face discharge and other disciplinary measures. Same thing on airplanes, right? The Navy began issuing guidance to sailors earlier this month. 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. The Navy on Wednesday announced it had granted one waiver to a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, a non-drilling service member, who would have to get vaccinated should he or she come on orders. 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-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. All rights reserved. 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. Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. It also allows them to restrict sailors' movement "in order to comply with host nation quarantine regulations.". 2:41 . In one of many ongoing federal lawsuits challenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates across the country, Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a group . The Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in the case challenging the private-sector vaccine mandate,has asked the courtto invalidate the governments order. 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.. Its just under 4,100. 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. 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. 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. Kevin Stitt has pushed back on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the military that would apply to the Oklahoma National Guard. Nov. 2, 2021. The Navy already denied these exemptions, but O'Connor. Per FDA guidance, these two vaccines are interchangeable and DoD health care providers should use doses distributed under the EUA to administer the vaccination series as if the doses were the licensed vaccine, " she wrote. 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 latest lawsuit challenging DoD's COVID-19 vaccine mandate says the Air Force's process makes religious accommodations almost impossible to get. 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 . 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. There was no indication when the judges would rule. "We are grateful for the support of the Legislature and the Governor in the State's efforts to block the . Plaintiffs do not believe that staying true to their faith means exposing themselves or others to unnecessary risk, according to the filing. [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. Ryan Bruce, a Marine Corps spokesman, told Military.com. Other plaintiffs focus not on the abortion issue, but on several Bible passages that refer to the body as a temple. Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. 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. COVID-19 vaccines are proven to be very safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Right? 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. The government has since filed a notice that it plans to appeal the decision. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? "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 soldier and Marine also want their case escalated into a class action lawsuit to take in other military personnel plus Department of Defense contractors. 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. 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 problem here is that the government is simply unwilling to offer any compromises. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. 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. And in some cases, according to some reports, its even more durable than the vaccine and you dont have to get boosters and things like that. Dr Terry Adirim, the government bureaucrat behind the infamous and unlawful Pentagon vaccine mandate, will "leave her post in the coming days," reports FedScoop. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. Were going from a 50-step process to a zero-step process? Duncan asked. Two Eglin Air Force base officers are among the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. military personnel. Already, a soldier and Marine have filed a lawsuit arguing that service members who have already recovered from COVID-19 and therefore have natural immunity should be exempt from vaccine mandates, according to the Army Times. The government responded to the lawsuit by pointing out that immunization requirements are common in the military beginning with the Continental Army under George Washington and that vaccines and are essential to preventing the transmission of diseases in close quarters. They become the exception and not the norm. Adam Rawnsley. On August 30, both Robert and Mulvihill asked U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore for a temporary restraining order regarding the vaccinations for military members who have already been. Produced by Will Reid , Rob Szypko . 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. The Department of the Air Force, which also issues guidance for the Space Force, has detailed it will be rescinding letters of admonishment, counseling or reprimand; records of individual counseling; nonjudicial punishments; and current involuntary discharge proceedings connected to vaccine refusal. 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. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. All of the military services have released vaccine refusal policies, none of them involving judicial or non-judicial charges for simply staying unvaccinated. 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. And yet they say, you know what, we now believe that its okay, for our employees to not be vaccinated, its okay for our customers to not be vaccinated. So if they work Sunday afternoon, or if theyre scheduled to work a particular Sunday afternoon, they say, Well, Im a Sabbath observer on Sundays. Im willing to go through that. And usually when somebody is willing to go through those measures, that demonstrates a degree of sincerity. President Joe Biden signed the. Jared Serbu: Yeah, theres a ton. 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. This whole thing is really unprecedented, right? (Susan Walsh/AP, File). 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 military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. All told the lawsuit includes 26 SEALs from the original complaint, plus five special warfare combatant crewmen, five divers and one explosive ordnance disposal technician who joined the case in late January. U.S. Military Service Members with Natural Immunity File Lawsuit over COVID Vaccine Mandate. A vaccine lawsuit is filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, instead of regular state or federal courts like other drug injury claims. The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Theres yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the militarys COVID-19 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. 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. You got a preliminary injunction in that case and a favorable ruling from the Fifth Circuit. 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. Theyre not pleasant. 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. 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. But there may be good reason for that. 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. 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. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. Several lawsuits have been filed by sailors opposing the mandate and challenging the Navy's approach to reviewing the religious exemption requests. Subscribe to Federal Drives daily audio interviews onApple PodcastsorPodcastOne. If the court certifies the class does the class become all unvaccinated airmen or everyone whos been denied a religious exemption? Otherwise, the courts are going to be flooded with thousands of lawsuits, he said. I think we win under the First Amendment, because you have individualized exemptions with medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions.. ", -- Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,OConnor said: As a brief preview, the vaccine mandate fails strict scrutiny. 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. 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. While vials contain the same formula, some have made the argument that because providers are still giving the emergency-use Pfizer version, no one can be compelled to get vaccinated until the Comirnaty-labeled vials are in circulation. Im very confident that this case going to the Supreme Court, Mat Staver whose Liberty Counsel represents plaintiffs in the Florida case told Military Times on Tuesday. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. 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. Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. 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. Because how do you avoid getting to the point where anyone can deny or refuse any lawful order by claiming that they have a sincerely held religious belief that would be encumbered by it? 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. While powerful, that statement isnt true. Then in April, the WHO warned that. The Florida filing also spends much more time on the biographies of the complainants. There are fresh concerns that public support for ongoing military assistance may be waning. 2:14:14 Pentagon exploring back pay for troops kicked out of military over vaccine mandate. 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. Copyright 2023 Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. The "rule" and the ways it will be fought 1:43:40 How to fight the NFA and its unconstitutional rule about barrel lengths. Biden appointee behind unlawful military vaccine mandate to step down. 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. Plaintiffs sincerely held religious beliefs that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that they are to glorify God with their bodies lays the foundation for everything they do, consume, or inject into their bodies, according to the Florida lawsuit. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. Theyre not following their own regulations. The latest class action targets the Air Forces religious accommodation process, arguing that process is set up in such a way that getting a religious exemption to the vaccine is almost impossible. 26 Feb 2023 11:38:25 And the way that they are accomplishing their compelling interest is the least restrictive means on the persons religious beliefs. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. Each of those shots also involves cell tissue derived from fetuses, as does one version of the rabies vaccine. 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. The Navy granted another 500 administrative exemptions, including temporary waivers for sailors planning to leave the service or in the middle of a permanent change-of-station move, for example. . Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Starbucks, for example, doesnt have a vaccine requirement. They argue that their. 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. On Jan. 7,the Supreme Court is set to hear oral argumentsin a set of high-profile, consolidated cases on the Biden administrations vaccine mandates for private-sector entities with 100 or more employees, and for health care facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. Fox News U.S. Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. 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. 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. 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. 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. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. Because they will not compromise these religious beliefs, Plaintiffs have been threatened with separation from the military and other disciplinary action. "It hasn't done it yet. Subscribe on PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. The government burdens religion when it put[s] substantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs.. Similar to the Navy, the Marine Corps is no longer stopping unvaccinated Marines from deployments. 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 ended the inoculation mandate last month.