VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . A ruling in that case, issued this past November by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, upheld previous wins by attorneys representing the service members over the last year and took aim at the Air Force's process of approving religious exemptions. The next stop in the litigation is likely to be an appeal by the Department of Defense and the Biden administration to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The decision sets the stage for a future trial or, possibly, the case winding its way up to the Supreme Court. The vaccine mandate divided Americans and has remained a contentious political issue. Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. The "rule" and the ways it will be fought 1:43:40 How to fight the NFA and its unconstitutional rule about barrel lengths. And in one instance, I saw one of the head people for recruiting in the military said, Were having a really hard time identifying, basically people who are eligible to serve in the military. The military's COVID-19 vaccine was repealed after the National Defense Authorization Act passed and was signed into law this month. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. 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. The Navy has, however, granted medical exemption requests submitted by other personnel. Attorneys for the unvaccinated Navy personnel argued in briefs to the 5th Circuit that Austins memo and other Defense Department actions show that the Navy still intends to treat unvaccinated personnel like second-class citizens because of their religious beliefs.. Rabies shots are required only for some service members in certain career fields. Several lawsuits have been filed by sailors opposing the mandate and challenging the Navy's approach to reviewing the religious exemption requests. More than 8,400 troops were forced out of the military for refusing to obey a lawful order when they declined to get the vaccine. Its just under 4,100. 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. Religious freedom laws are set up to avoid a circumstance where the Navy, or the military or the government, is doing a faith test, to determine whether or not you really believe what youre supposed to believe, Griffin said. Dr Terry Adirim, the government bureaucrat behind the infamous and unlawful Pentagon vaccine mandate, will "leave her post in the coming days," reports FedScoop. So for example, in a different context, somebody who says that theyre a Sabbath observer, and they cannot work on the Sabbath, but that theyre willing to trade ships with somebody, most of the cases Ive seen, theyre actually willing to take, what most people consider be a less favorable shift. 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. I mean, all of it is just fraught with ideological purpose, and suspected purpose.. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in the press release that the service is still, however, encouraging vaccinations. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. All the things that, you know, that the Navy was doing to harass and punish sailors we basically wanted that to all stop, Mike Berry, a former Marine judge advocate and now vice president at First Liberty Institute, which represents the Texas plaintiffs, told Military Times on Wednesday. The Air Force has approved 135 religious exemption requests out of thousands submitted so far. 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. 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. All 16 service members joined the lawsuit anonymously, listing in the filing only their currently assigned bases and statuses in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or reserve components. The government burdens religion when it put[s] substantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs.. Staver believes the Florida case case has a good chance of making it to the Supreme Court, potentially invalidating all government mandates for COVID-19 vaccination. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. 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. More than 60 service members have joined lawsuits against the U.S. government, alleging that the militarys process for awarding religious vaccine exemptions is a sham. On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. The Biden Administration has previously admitted that it is not the federal government's role to enforce vaccine mandates. Mondays arguments were heard by Duncan and Ho, both nominated to the 5th Circuit by President Donald Trump, and James Graves, a nominee of President Barack Obama. It is not yet clear how the various services will handle pending lawsuits that sprang up in the years following the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. Thomas Bruns, a Cincinnati-based attorney with Bruns, Connell, Vollmar & Armstrong representing the service members, told Military.com on Monday that the service members in that case are promised full relief from any harms caused by the mandate. 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. T he MAGA medical group that spent the pandemic pushing horse paste and malaria meds as quack COVID cures has a new crusade: suing the Pentagon to stop its vaccine mandate. A 5th Circuit panel rejected the Biden administrations request to block the judges order. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. Also missing from the lawsuits are any new religious conversion, or simply the possibility that they were previously unaware of the role of replicated fetal stem cells in pharmaceutical development, that would explain why they never objected to any vaccines or medications before. Were pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security. 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Theyre usually willing to accept that and say, look, yeah, Im happy to. 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. 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.. msn back to msn home news Skip To Navigation On Monday, Heather Hacker, an attorney for the Navy personnel, said the situation could be seen as worse now for them now that the older mandate policy has been rescinded, because current policy does not provide for a sailors religious objections to the vaccine to be considered when deployment or assignment decisions are made. 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. Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making, in their briefs. Just because of the just incredibly political nature of, of all of it, from the virus to the vaccine to the mandates, Marshall Griffin, a retired Coast Guard judge advocate who now practices privately, told Military Times on Monday. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. 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 three coronavirus vaccines currently available in the United Statesthe Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and, as of Saturday, the Johnson & Johnson versionsare approved on "emergency use. I know, off the top of my head, the number in the Navy is somewhere near 4,100. US Military To Face COVID-19 Vaccine Lawsuit February 18, 2023. 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. 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. 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. Like the other service branches, the Navy required all active-duty service members to be fully vaccinated before Nov. 28 or risk a full range of disciplinary action. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an injunction against discipline of an Air Force officer whose religious exemption had been denied. The Marine Corps confirmed to a California congressman that two of those Marines were preparing to leave the service, while another one is doing a Training With Industry assignment. 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. So that, right now that number is several thousand. 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. Other plaintiffs focus not on the abortion issue, but on several Bible passages that refer to the body as a temple.