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. Produced by Will Reid , Rob Szypko . 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. That is especially true when the government imposes a choice between ones job and ones religious belief. 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. 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. Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. "It hasn't done it yet. 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.. The Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in the case challenging the private-sector vaccine mandate,has asked the courtto invalidate the governments order. 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 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. Right? Theyre not following federal law. And what if this is political ideology masquerading as as religious piety? But the administration won at least a temporary, partial victory last March when the Supreme Court approved a partial stay. The order allowed the Navy to consider the sailors vaccination status in making decisions on deployment, assignment and other operational issues while the case plays out. "We are grateful for the support of the Legislature and the Governor in the State's efforts to block the . 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. WASHINGTON (AP) The military services are still reviewing possible discipline of troops who refused the order to get the COVID-19 vaccine, defense officials told Congress on Tuesday, and they provided few details on how many of those who were forced out of the military would like to return. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), it doesnt, the sincerity issue is what everybody seems to be concerned with, right? So that, right now that number is several thousand. At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. The Navy comes in second with a total of 469 separations, which includes 50 this past week. Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. Their lawyers have called a sham with applications being categorically denied., The Defense Department denied the process was onerous and said the Navy has a compelling interest in requiring vaccinations for personnel who often operate for long periods in confined spaces that are ripe breeding grounds for respiratory illnesses.. Assuming, maybe Im assuming too much. 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This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal. 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. And in fact, he said, the exemption process is fraught in and of itself. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. Dr. Lee Merritt, a self-described Navy surgeon, stated during an . 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. ), the Washington Post, and others. Im willing to go through that. And usually when somebody is willing to go through those measures, that demonstrates a degree of sincerity. Our lawsuit is certainly centered on religious exemption, but our lawsuit is broader than that to block the mandate in general of a non-FDA approved product, Staver said. The latest data from the military show that roughly 30,000 active-duty service members remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite a Defense Department mandate issued in August and deadlines. Please contact Susan Rushkowski at publicfiledc@hubbardradio.com or (202) 895-5027. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine syringes at a vaccination clinic in the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2022. Feb. 23, 2023. 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 lawsuit also fails to mention an established precedent regarding vaccines in religious traditions. 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. He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Quite the contrary, they view life whether their own or that of their fellow servicemembers as sacred and deserving protection.. 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. 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. In other words, its usually ill-advised to take an opinion on one subject or one issue, and then try to extrapolate and say and that and say, Well, that should apply across the board to all issues. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemned the mid-morning attack. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. The service branches must notify the Pentagon that they've made the changes no later than March 17. When I meet my maker, Im going to be held responsible for the decisions Ive made, and Id much rather go to prison, Stapanon testified in March. Federal News Network's DoD Cloud Exchange: From enterprise to the tactical edge discover how the Defense Department and military services intend to advance their use of cloud technologies. The chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. 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. The Coast Guard issued guidance Monday announcing it was "taking action to remove" all administrative remark entries related to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate from reserve and active-duty records. And that is textbook discrimination, right? Theyre usually willing to accept that and say, look, yeah, Im happy to. The first lawsuit to garner national attention, filed in Texas late last year, made a splash because its plaintiffs include SEALs, among the most elite of the militarys special operations forces. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. Ryan Bruce, a Marine Corps spokesman, told Military.com. 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. 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. 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. Similar to the Navy, the Marine Corps is no longer stopping unvaccinated Marines from deployments. But although the Air Force has approved hundreds of medical and administrative exemptions, they have only approved a very small handful of religious exemptions and even the ones that theyve approved by their own admission, they are only for Air Force members who are basically already separating or are already on their way out. Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. Read Next: The Navy's Top Enlisted Sailor Is Ready for You to Ask Him Anything. And to say, basically, no, you will do this because we said so and if you dont, were gonna kick you out. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. And the way that they are accomplishing their compelling interest is the least restrictive means on the persons religious beliefs. Lawyers are waiting to see if a federal court in Georgia will stop the vaccine mandate nationwide through another class-action preliminary injunction as well. Other federal court challenges to various COVID-19 vaccine mandates are ongoing. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine was developed and cleared for emergency use in eight months a fact . 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. Vaccine refusers often state that the use of fetal cell lines in the creation of the shots conflicts with their views on abortion. The first military COVID-19 vaccine mandate will take effect in November. 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. 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. 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. 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. The Air Force number is probably in the same ballpark. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution. And one of the reasons for that is if they if theyre between the ages of 17 and 23, and theyre not vaccinated, were not even willing to talk to them. And so theyre basically closing off an entire segment of society in a discriminatory manner. But it may not take a lawsuit for the issue to change the environment when it comes to mandatory vaccination. 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. Just because the plaintiffs identify as a member of one religion or another doesnt mean they need to follow every tradition, according to Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, nor would they need to justify why they are religiously opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine in particular. Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. Theres been a lot of great saints that have gone to prison, so Im willing to do that.. The only difference is really is that each branch of the military has their own internal regulations and policies for how they adjudicate these things. They argue that their 1st Amendment rights are being infringed upon, because their sincerely held religious beliefs prevent them from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The Justice Department intends to appeal the Texas ruling, while a temporary injunction in the Florida case expires Friday. Are there major differences here? The Supreme Court is historically, they only address the legal issues that are brought before them, right. 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. Nov. 2, 2021. Indeed, Defendants employed such measures during the prior year before COVID-19 vaccines were made widely available.. 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. 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 law says that sincerely held religious beliefs are to be taken at face value. Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. In his order, OConnor granted an injunction against the Biden administration and the Department of Defense, preventing them from enforcing the vaccine mandate against any of the named service members who had applied for a religious exemption. death from COVID-19 vaccines administered after the declaration ends would be addressed in court under tort law unless the COVID-19 vaccines are added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP; 42 U.S.C. Mike Berry, general counsel for First Liberty Institute,said: Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and Americas values . Then in April, the WHO warned that supplier Bharat Biotech had stopped production because of deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.. "Marines will defer to Combatant Command policies regarding deployments.". It took four years and was licensed in 1967. msn back to msn home news Skip To Navigation They had been told to get certain vaccines or other things without even be notified of a religious objection.. 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. That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. And now people will be able to take the analysis Supreme Court used and say, Okay, the way that they analyzed this issue, that might give us some indication of how they would analyze other issues, right. He has criticized the Air Force for what he sees as a failure to carefully consider the merits of each exemption request and instead sweepingly reject them. 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? 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.
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