On Monday, a motion to group all the sailors with religious objections to Joe Biden’s vaccine requirement as part of a single group was granted in a lawsuit that was filed by First Liberty for the 35 Navy SEALs against the agency.
The 35 Navy SEALs demanding that the Department of Defense respect their religious beliefs will now be seen as representatives from all sailors with similar objections to the vaccination requirement, according to a recent decision from U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor for the Northern District of Texas.
On top of the SEALs, whose case is still pending and who are therefore exempt from being separated from the Navy, the DOD may not separate any soldier with a religious objection to the covid vaccine requirement until the litigation is resolved. Perhaps over 4,000 individuals would be affected by this restriction.
The military’s highest court lifted an injunction on the Pentagon’s ability to take action against Navy SEALs in assignment, deployment and other operational decisions last week in a setback for the troops. However, they may not be dismissed.
The Court GRANTS the preliminary injunction, but orders it to STAY “insofar as it prevents the Navy from taking respondents’ vaccination status into account while making operational decisions.”
The Pentagon is expected to appeal O’Connor’s latest decision, and after the Fifth Circuit appeals court, the case may be resolved in the U.S. Supreme Court again.
After the FDA authorized Pfizer’s vaccine in Aug. of last year, Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin mandated that all military personnel be fully immunized against the coronavirus.
However, 16,000 service members at-least have applied for or refused an exemption. Service members may request temporary or permanent exemptions for health reasons, administrative causes such as a pending separation from the military, and religious purposes.
So far, the military has approved just two dozen requests for religious exemptions out of thousands submitted. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) learned that three instances he wanted information on were granted because the service members were leaving the armed forces at the time.
The Department of Defense has already separated over 1,500 service members for not going along with the vaccination order, and there are thousands more on hold or awaiting a response to their exemptions, as previously reported by Breitbart News.
