2:14:14 Pentagon exploring back pay for troops kicked out of military over vaccine mandate. I think we win under the First Amendment, because you have individualized exemptions with medical exemptions, but not religious exemptions.. Assuming, maybe Im assuming too much. 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. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. The Navy began issuing guidance to sailors earlier this month. 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. 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. 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. Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. It was just a bunch of window dressing, on what was really a foregone conclusion of 100% of religious exemption requests were going to be disapproved, Berry said. In late August, Pfizers vaccine received full approval under the brand name Comirnaty. Copyright 2023 Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. 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. That includes protection from an adverse action while their exemptions are in process, a key part of the complaint, according to one of the attorneys on the lawsuit, which alleges that the plaintiffs have been removed from their jobs, flagged for promotion or otherwise hampered during the exemption process. So that, right now that number is several thousand. Theyll accept that alternative and say, okay, you know, Im willing to do that instead. Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. That means that this is quickly becoming a national security concern. Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. Each of those shots also involves cell tissue derived from fetuses, as does one version of the rabies vaccine. 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. So if you can find a way to accommodate somebodys religious beliefs, in a less burdensome way right, a way thats less obstructive or cumbersome on their religious exercise, then if the person is really sincere in their religious beliefs, theyll usually accept that. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Our military, I mean, you can open any news feed that you want. There are fresh concerns that public support for ongoing military assistance may be waning. "It hasn't done it yet. 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. Kevin Stitt with Fox News ads The free exercise of religion, even in the military, it triggers the strongest protection available in the law.. But there may be good reason for that. 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. "Marines will defer to Combatant Command policies regarding 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. The chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. The complaint also brings up the issue of Food and Drug Administration licensure. The government really cant scrutinize belief very far.. How large is the class? Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. Military officials announced this week that, after months of warnings, they have . This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,OConnor said: As a brief preview, the vaccine mandate fails strict scrutiny. There was no indication when the judges would rule. 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. Military Services Will Amend COVID Vaccine Refuser Records So They Aren't Passed Over for Promotions, UN Nuclear Head Meets With Iranians Amid Enrichment Concerns, Philippine Governor, 5 Others Killed in Brazen Attack, China: Defense Boost to Meet 'Complex Security Challenges', Biden and Scholz: US, Germany in 'Lockstep' on Ukraine War, Air Mobility Command Removes Tail Numbers and Unit Info from Planes, Alarming Watchdogs, All Combat-Injured Vets Would Keep Their Full Retirement, Disability Pay Under Proposal, Better Housing, Health Care, Pay and a Call for National Service Needed to Buoy Recruitment, Enlisted Chiefs Say, 2 Commanders Among 6 Fired from Jobs at Minot Air Force Base, Veterans' Emergency Room Bills Could Get Repaid by VA Thanks to Change, The Pentagon Is Behind on Issuing Policy to Allow Cadets Who Have Kids to Remain at Service Academies, The Navy's Top Enlisted Sailor Is Ready for You to Ask Him Anything, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors, Navy Lifts COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Deployments, The Personally Procured Move (PPM): Steps to Take, Service Members Get Special Rental and Eviction Protection, The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act - SCRA, Paris Davis, Black Green Beret in Vietnam, Finally Awarded Medal of Honor at White House, Ex-Army Private Gets 45 Years for Plot Against His Unit, Ohio Guard Quietly Removed Guardsman Guilty of Making Ghost Guns Last Year, Some Neck and Hand Tattoos OK for Airmen and Guardians Under New Policy Aimed at Helping Recruiting, Nuclear Base Fired 6 Service Members Over Failed Safety Inspection, Defense Official Says, Hawaii Congressional Delegation Asks IRS to Exempt Red Hill Families, Navy Seabee Battalion Honored in Decommissioning Ceremony, Is Deactivated After 80 Years of Building and Fighting, Navy Investigating 3 Instances of 'Hate Symbols' Aboard Destroyer, Health Net Protests $65.1 Billion Tricare Contract Award, Tricare Dental Program to Expand Choice of Carriers Under New Law, Veterans Group Pushes Cap on Attorney Fees in Camp Lejeune Water Cases Despite Political Divide on Limits, Disabled Vets Post Stunning Job Gains as Economy Remains Hot Despite Inflation, Marine Corps Axes Elite Scout Sniper Platoons, Coast Guard Relieves Commander Following Deadly Collision, Coast Guard Swimmer Recounts Dramatic Rescue of Alleged Oregon Yacht Thief and Goonies Prankster, Coast Guard Gulf of Mexico Rescue to Be Chronicled in Survival Thriller Movie, Celebrated Pearl Harbor Survivor Jack Holder Lived Large for Those Who Didn't Make It, 'Dead Space' Remake Gets Everything Right, Army Veteran Wayne Shorter Was a Titan of Jazz. 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. Theres yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 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. We took a very intentional approach of maintaining a laser-like focus on religious liberty, because we believe that that is the strongest legal basis, he said. The Navy lawsuit is one of several ongoing legal challenges to the military branches' policies on religious exemptions to the DoD COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 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 has, however, granted medical exemption requests submitted by other personnel. And our clients are, theyre stationed in various locations, quite a few of them are here in Texas. 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. To date, no members of the Army or Space Force have received a religious exemption, though nine airmen and three Marines have been approved. Both cases are in a wait-and-see phase, where judges have granted injunctions against any discipline for vaccine refusal while the government responds to requests for information. 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. Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek declined to comment on ongoing litigation and how it may affect how the service handles religious accommodation requests. Mike Barry:No, really, I mean, this is happening across the entire Department of Defense. By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square) Military leaders will testify on Tuesday before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee about the impact of the Department of Defense's COVID-19 vaccine mandate on DOD employees and military service members. 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. 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. OConnormade note of thisin his order, calling the process for seeking a religious exemption nothing more than theater, stating that the Navy merely rubber-stamps each denial, and stressing that the record overwhelmingly demonstrates that the Navys religious-accommodation process is an exercise in futility.. Given the prevailing public health guidelines and the state of the virus, there is currently no intention to require universal vaccination of all service members, Ross said. The military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. Indeed, Defendants employed such measures during the prior year before COVID-19 vaccines were made widely available.. 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? Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC. 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. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), it doesnt, the sincerity issue is what everybody seems to be concerned with, right? Jared Serbu: Mike, thanks for being here. Rabies shots are required only for some service members in certain career fields. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. 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. 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. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. Unlike VARES that is questioned a lot by the totally compromised medical establishment for accuracy, the U.S. military DMED (Defense Medical Epidemiology Database) reporting system is only submitted by military doctors and qualifies every single ICD (International Classification of Diseases) code in the military for Tricare billing to Humana Insurance covering over 6 million military personal. 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. 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. And youll see headline after headline talking about the recruiting and retention woes that plague our military right now. Plaintiffs, therefore, do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace, it reads. And yet were short, were saying that were having a hard time recruiting people. New family, former Corvias employee join lawsuit against Fort . The Air Force number is probably in the same ballpark. Those records are supposed to be cleared by March 31, according to the guidance. 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.. [Many] didnt even know that there was a religious exemption option, because they had never been informed of it, Staver said. It took four years and was licensed in 1967. Jared Serbu: Got it. 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. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that federal court injunctions against the mandate are still needed, in part because decisions on deployments and assignments can still be made based on vaccination status. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. Just three days later, he issued a far more sweeping order granting 4,095 service members a religious exemption from the COVID vaccine. NEW ORLEANS Federal appeals court judges closely questioned a Biden administration attorney Monday on the consequences military personnel might face for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations, even. Theyre not following their own regulations. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in the press release that the service is still, however, encouraging vaccinations. 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.