About time for Sailors who refused Covid shots

Several years later – the Navy has opened a window for sailors who refused Covid shots for religious reasons to have their records cleaned up.

Under an agreement in the case announced Wednesday, Navy sailors who refused the vaccine for religious reasons can now have their records corrected and will be protected against discrimination on promotion boards for the next three years (emphasis added, ed.), according to their attorneys.

Promotion boards “must not consider any adverse information related solely to COVID-19 vaccine refusal in cases in which a religious accommodation was requested,” according to a release from the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization that defends religious liberties, and the law firm Hacker Stephens LLP.

The Navy also agreed to review the personnel records of all plaintiffs to ensure that the service expunged any information on administrative separation, counseling or nonjudicial punishment for failing to comply with the mandate.

The lawsuit, U.S. Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden, alleged that the Navy and the Defense Department violated their First Amendment rights to religious freedom by “categorically denying” their requests for religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine.  Military Times

Great that their records can be cleaned up… but the devil’s in the details, as they say.

Although the Defense Department lifted the vaccine mandate in January 2023 as required by the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the case could continue in order to allow the district court to consider the Navy’s record on religious accommodations.

The Justice Department had requested that the suit be dismissed, but the court denied the request and “the parties reached a settlement on behalf of all class members,” according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.

The Navy also agreed to pay $1.5 million in legal fees to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Previously, the attorneys were awarded $1.8 million in a separate settlement of a suit against the Defense Department.

The plaintiffs will not receive any of the compensation in either settlement, and a settlement is not an admission of guilt or wrongdoing by either party.

I read that to mean “no compensation for a ruined career, nothing to make up for three years excised from your life, and importantly, no other service seems to be affected.”

Roughly 17,000 service members refused the vaccine, and more than 8,400 were discharged for their decision, including 3,717 Marines, 2,041 Navy sailors, 1,841 Army soldiers, and 834 Air Force and Space Force members.

So 2000 sailors get some form of protection, and 6,000 from other services – what? Go piss up a rope? Have to sue themselves? And note that highlighted section above – what about after three years? Officers’ selections have notoriously long memories, and what’s to say a lieutenant headed for commander or captain four or more years from now doesn’t run into institutional memory?  This is 2024, and we are still finding out about Fauci-isms and lies from 2021.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Navy