In November 2021, the U.S. Navy announced it would be discharging all sailors who refused the COVID vaccine and would be consequently stripping the unvaxxed sailors of their special pay and education benefits. When we initially reported on this story, not a single religious exemption had been accepted. On Monday, a preliminary injunction was granted to a group of 35 unvaccinated Navy SEALS and Sailors involved in a lawsuit against Biden and his regime for denying their religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.
This lawsuit was filed in November, under the complaint that the mandate denied them the “fundamental right to the free exercise of religion and protection from agency action that is unlawful, contrary to law, and arbitrary and capricious.”
On Monday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction to the Navy Special Warfare servicemembers. This move will prohibit the Department of Defense from taking any action against the group of servicemembers.
“The Navy service members, in this case, seek to indicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” said Judge Reed O’Connor in his order. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
“By all accounts,” continued O’Connor’s order, “Plaintiffs have safely carried out their jobs during the pandemic. … Even if Defendants have a broad compelling interest in widespread vaccination of its force, they have achieved this goal without the participation of the thirty-five Plaintiffs here.”
In a news release from First Liberty, Mike Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty Institute, said, “The fact that the government has not granted a single religious exemption from the vaccine mandate shows that the Biden Administration does not care about religious freedom. Instead, this appears to be an attempted ideological purge. Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America’s values.” Berry continued, “After all these elite warriors have done to defend our freedoms, the Navy is now threatening their careers, families, and finances. It’s appalling and it has to stop before any more harm is done to our national security.”
Berry condemned the Biden regime’s actions against the military, and praised the court for its ruling, saying, “Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America’s values… We’re pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security.”
