Austin Rejects Oklahoma’s Request to Exempt Guard from Vax Mandate
SECDEF Austin
The Pentagon has rejected a request from Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) to exempt his state’s National Guard from the Department of Defense’s vaccine mandate.
In a letter to Stitt shared with The Hill, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said all members of the Oklahoma Air and Army National Guard must follow the mandate “regardless of duty status.”
Failure to get vaccinated “may lead to a prohibition on the member’s participation in drills and training… and jeopardize the member’s status in the National Guard,” Austin wrote, adding that Stitt’s concerns “do not negate the need for this important military readiness requirement.”
SECDEF Austin rejects OK Nat’l Guard vaccine exemption request; unvaccinated troops may lose federal pay
Ryan Morgan
On Monday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rejected a request by Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to exempt his state’s National Guard from the Pentagon COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Austin said troops not in compliance with the vaccine mandate could jeopardize their National Guard status, thus losing federal pay and benefits.
Stitt had requested in early November for the Pentagon to exempt members of the Oklahoma Guard from the federal vaccine mandate. In a response letter to Stitt, which was provided to the Associated Press, Austin said all members of the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard, “regardless of duty status,” must follow the specified vaccination directions of the Army and Air Force service secretaries.
“Failure to do so may lead to a prohibition on the member’s participation in drills and training” conducted under Title 32 of the U.S. Code, “and jeopardize the member’s status in the National Guard,” Austin added.
No surprise here. At odds here are who commands State National Guard units, and when.
Title 32 of the U.S. Code, stipulates that a state or territory’s governor holds the power to mobilize their guard members unless the troops are activated for a federal mission.
But under Title 10, the president could mobilize the guard, placing them under federal authority.
Other states are watching developments carefully, and I have no doubt lawsuits are in the offing.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Big Pentagon
Time to call in sick on those weekends.
Not surprised at the outcome, but I don’t think that Oklahoma is done fighting. It’s gonna be hard to argue when Big Army turns off the money though.
Word up SFC D. And yeppers, we all saw this coming. Maybe all the OKNG should run for Kongress, after all, Kongress exempted themselves from the “mandates.”
Too bad for Oklahoma, and all the other states. IIRC, that whole issue of “States Rights” was settled in favor of the Feds back in 1865. Remember the Golden Rule…”He who has the gold…RULES!
Considering they want to deploy 1000 more NG troops to other areas of the world it’ll fun to see who blinks first.
Just declare Oklahoma a “sanctuary state” from federal covid mandates.
Works for blue cities with immigration LAWS.
I wonder how many people in Red states would be okay with a $10 per person tax levy, the purpose of which is to fund their NG and keep them out of direct reach of the Feds, rendering Big Army/Fed dollars moot. I get Title 10 allows the President to call them up but if they are not “compliant”, they can’t be. Unless they are called up so they can be vaccinated, which would be a gross overreach of Title 10. That is, if I understand it correctly.
Not advocating for it, just wondering. Are these issues of Fed vs State power the basis for the next Civil War? I know some who would welcome it. The idea that the Feds no longer dictate education, vaccinations, environmental and a whole host of policies sounds enticing to them. My perspective is that is the end of our country. The response I got, “It’s already gone, most just don’t realize it”
I say we need to take back Washington, they say it’s not enough. They say the entrenched bureaucracies are too deep and numerous and Because he was beginning to dismantle them is why Trump was so vilified. The rest was just palatable window dressing for the masses, ie mean tweets.
Maybe I’m in denial but it sounds plausible. And scarier than any tinfoil hat theory I’ve yet to hear.
Only Army Mom,
It already exists, and in many states, already in place.
21 states have active “state defense force”, or “State Guard”,
under sole authority of the Governor,
with NO federal authority to call up or activate the state guard units.
Oklahoma has this authorized, but it is inactive.
NOTE – There have been Military PHONIES, with claims of heroics and (of course) uniforms and medals to match,
with direct ties to state defense forces.
There have also been major shenanigans in the ranks of several State Guards,
which then downsized or eliminated their units.
List of states here…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force#List_of_State_defense_forces
“There have also been major shenanigans in the ranks of several State Guards,
which then downsized or eliminated their units.”
Bunch of rank amateurs no doubt. No diversity and incapable of executing a withdrawal from a sandbox or mud pit. TIC
http://statedefenseforce.com/
SO…….combine the two….Austin “de-funding” the Nat’l Guard, and OK transferring all the military property, and people, over to the OK State Guard.
Sounds like a pain-in-the-ass, but doable, and for the right reason.
Wonder if the state can “seize” some of those FedGov funds by way of authorizing taxpayers to NOT pay some portion of the taxes that get sent to Mordor-on-the-Swamp (and a percentage are returned to the state), and instead, add it to the taxes paid to the state?
Not gonna work out too well.
NG property was in general Federally funded (MCA for Armories, Procurement funding bought most equipment not falling under the OMA limit, minor purchases largely funded by OMA). Best I can tell, that gives the Federal government title.
Further, NG techs are Federal employees, paid with Federal OMA dollars. And drill/AT funding is also Federal (MPA).
States could attempt to transfer the troops to their state guards, but they’d have nowhere to train/assemble and little or no equipment with which to train or do admin functions. Paying them also becomes quite problematic. Plus, there’s the contractual enlistment/officer service obligations to consider as well. I’d suspect that the Federal obligation takes precedence until the individual is discharged from the NG.
IMO, doing this would be is a 100% a non-starter. All it would do would be enrich a whole bunch of lawyers in the short term, while at the same time possibly subjecting a number of state officials to Federal theft/misappropriation charges (for the equipment).
My take is that it’s not gonna happen. And if it’s attempted, it won’t turn out well.
No doubt it will end up in federal court which will be quite interesting insomuch as the chief judge of the Western District of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, the obvious venue, is a native Okie and George Bush appointee who spent more than 20 years as a JAG officer in the Oklahoma National Guard.
If anyone should understand the legal issues and ramifications, it should be this guy.
It would not be surprising if he didn’t grant the state injunctive relief with the issuance of a temporary stay as other federal judges in other states have done where state AG’s have brought suit against the federal Covid mandates.
Two more federal injunctions against federal vaccine mandates in the past two days and today’s is nationwide:
https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/judge-finds-it-puzzling-that-biden-admin-didnt-consider-natural-immunity-for-healthcare-workers-blocks-mandates-to-protect-liberty-interests-of-the-unvaccinated/
Ol’ Poe thinks we may be on the cusp of an expanding trend here…
“It would not be surprising if he didn’t grant…”
Confusing word salad there
Better: It would not be surprising if he granted…
Poe, all you say here may all be true – or it may not be. But it’s completely irrelevant to my comment above.
You really need to re-read what I wrote. Nowhere in my comment did I address – even obliquely – anything pertaining to any type of Federal “Covid vaccination mandate”. On the contrary: I only addressed the “just transfer the NG and its assets to the OK State Guard” suggestion that immediately preceded my comment.
I didn’t address why a state governor might want to do that. Further, my critique remains valid regardless of the reason a governor might want to make such a move.
You’re usually much more perceptive than that. I’m disappointed.
Hey Okies! Say the word and I’m there. My daisy years of NCOing are behind be, but you put a Stormtrooper in front of me…
Dare those clowns to get froggy n’ jump out their boxes, get into some git’sum.
No Balls Austin and the rest of those Congresscritter lackey morons at DoD DON’T GET TO TELL YOU TO VIOLATE THE LAW!
Someone has to end this over-reach. The Good Lord don’t give us more than we can handle, jus’sayin.
I wonder who wrote the letter for Austin to make sure the big words were spelled correctly? He is showing the puppet strings more every day.
BTW, he is lying. Active duty Navy vaxx numbers are at 63.36% as of yesterday. That includes all shot categories; single-dose, both shots completed, and one shot started. By the true numbers, 128007 have not complied.
Well, the national healthcare worker mandate was just stayed by a federal judge – breaking news at 1730 central. It’s getting interesting and fuck Biden.
And apropos of nothing, I’ve heard a rumor that the secret service code name for Biden is “Depends” and Pelosi’s is “Poly-Grip.” Can anyone confirm?
I remember getting my twenty (20) year letter in the NG, the feeling/power of being able to tell people they should/need to “FO”.
Vaccines still classified as experimental, not FDA approved or at least not properly. Refuse the order, it is illegal. Why has no one sued yet. The courts will shove it up Xiden’s ass.
The legal precedent is already in place.
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/mass-torts/articles/2021/winter2022-not-breaking-news-mandatory-vaccination-has-been-constitutional-for-over-a-century/
Looks like the OKARNG and OKANG are gonna have to get vaccinated. The precedents involved go all the way back to the founding of the Nation.
You guys need to shut off Alex Jones and doing real research.
I’m sure even AJ could tell you the distinction between legal and lawful.
Our Brothers and Sisters should act according to their consciences, plead their right to self defense and maintain objective innocence during a trial heard in front of a fair jury.
(This is me telling you to go fkurself with a bar link. Villainous scum of tyrannical sores at ABA)
Yeah well it’s not quite as simple as you and the notoriously left-wing ABA make it sound, Xyzzy, because the Jacobson case dealt with a vaccination process (for smallpox) that had more than century-long standing with a known vaccine that had been demonstrated to be safe and effective.
The Covid vaccines have not yet been proved to be either safe or even as effective as natural immunity.
The Covid vaccines are still classified as experimental by the feds and their adverse reactions rates are higher than for all other properly tested vaccines combined for the past thirty years.
A good legal team will assuredly point out these differences to refute the Jacobson precedent.
And no, that argument doesnt come from Alex Jones but from real research. There are multiple legal sites out there on the Internet discussing these differences.
I suppose you think the attorneys general of several states would file suits in multiple federal courts without thoroughly researching Jacobson, the obvious precedent, and assuring themselves it is not on point?
Even minimally-talented, medical malpractice, ambulance-chasing, Democrat sleazebags like those who heavily populate the American Bar Association could figure that out if they were even minimally objective.
Small pox is to a real disease as CONvAIDS-19 is to a relabeling of actuarial tables in a year with a bad flu.
Also, less than 1,000 children have ‘succumb’ to this ‘virus’. If that’s not standing to end the use of a highly injurious injection, I don’t know what is.
(The reason for the quotes is that we still have presumptive cases being annotated as CoD and the PCR threshold for testing is still WAY to high and is *still* inaccurate as a diagnostic tool)
Well, Hondo, thank you for the compliment (I think) but we are still addressing the same issues but from different perspectives.
All of your points are valid and will certainly need to be addressed in any legal challenges to the vaccine mandate that arise which you agree in your closing paragraph may happen.
And that’s where my premise originated: They will only arise as a part of a state suit against the federal government challenging the vaccine mandate for National Guard members. If the governor bends and drops his opposition, all your points will remain as they now stand.
It’s similar to the “But-for” argument of causation: Without the DoD vaccine mandate, all the issues you so capably critiqued will remain moot.
So that’s the way I read your comment and after re-reading it, I still believe my comment on your comment remains valid.
Please, please, let’s not let this turn into another F-35 stem-winder…😜
What happened? This was supposed to post under Hondo’s comment.
Old Fart’s Disease strikes again…🙄
Sorry, Poe. As they’d have said where I grew up: “That dog don’t hunt.”
Although the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandate caused the subject to be discussed above, an attempted unilateral state-initiated transfer of NG personnel/equipment/facilities to State Guard is a separate, stand-alone issue. The same argument I made above would apply to an attempt by a state governor to make such a transfer to prevent NG assets from being used to control civil disturbances, or to prevent them from being mobilized for Federal duty. Or for any other reason, for that matter.
The only relationship between the two issues in the context of this article is temporal coincidence. The vaccine mandate and state authority to unilaterally transfer NG assets to state militia ownership and control are otherwise two completely separate, distinct, and unrelated issues.
Um, did we read the same article, Hondo?
The one I read up above is entitled, “SECDEF Austin rejects OK Nat’l Guard vaccine exemption request; unvaccinated troops may lose federal pay”.
Your initial comment was in response to a comment postulating that the states could take possession of guard properties in a situation growing out of disagreement between the states and DoD. I would submit that since your comment appears in a comment string from an article clearly entitled as it is that the issues are inextricably linked.
And as the possibility of such transfers will not even be attempted or contested unless Oklahoma or some other state is sufficiently dissatisfied with the federal vaccine mandate to pursue legal remedies.
The relationship may only be temporal but that is still a relationship and my “but-for” argument remains valid. Were it not for the Oklahoma-DoD standoff on the vaccine mandate, we wouldn’t even be having this now too-long discussion.
This is one where we’re just gonna have to disagree cause this ol’ dog is just too danged tired to hunt any more.
Specially since he thinks he’s already got this argument treed and is ready to relax and imbibe in his usual evening adult beverages…😜
“And as the possibility of such transfers will not even be attempted or contested unless Oklahoma or some other state is sufficiently dissatisfied with the federal vaccine mandate to pursue legal remedies.”
That is not a sentence and a glaring example of how ol’ Poe’s writing skills are deteriorating. It should have read:
And as the possibility of such transfers will not even be attempted or contested unless Oklahoma or some other state is sufficiently dissatisfied with the federal vaccine mandate and pursues legal remedies, those issues raised by Hondo will remain important but unaddressed.
Yes, we read the same TAH article. But no – the two issues are not “inextricably linked”.
You are apparently unwilling to accept the fact that I was commenting not on the article itself (and thus the vaccine mandate). My comment only addressed the proposed solution, not the reason behind it. As I said previously: I was commenting solely on the suggestion made regarding how OK could avoid compliance by transferring NG assets/facilities/troops to the state guard.
The reason a state might consider trying that suggestion is irrelevant to any discussion of the idea’s feasibility. IMO that suggestion is a non-starter, whatever the reason offered for such a transfer.
There also won’t be much to argue in court, should things go that far. The issue of whether the Federal government can compel National Guard troops and units to do something a state governor doesn’t agree with was definitely settled decades ago – see Little Rock, 1957, and Tuscaloosa, 1963. The Little Rock case is particularly instructive.
Okay, okay, the ol’ dawg heels. Since he can’t hunt anymore, he’s gonna go get back under the porch…😜