US Judge blocks SEALS from punishment for refusing the vaccine
A federal judge has ordered the US Department of Defense to not punish Navy SEALs, and other special forces service members, for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. This involves the service members refusing the vaccine for religious purposes. If these servicemembers are willing to sacrifice to protect these freedoms, they should not be denied these freedoms. This is one of the undercurrents driving the arguments of those who support this decision.
From NBC news:
“The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms,” the judge wrote in a 26-page decision.
The service members had faced a range of military discipline actions for refusing the vaccine.
First Liberty Institute, a legal organization dedicated to defending U.S. religious freedoms which represented the plaintiff service members, hailed the ruling as a victory.
“Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America’s values,” said Mike Berry, the institute’s general counsel, said in a written statement.
Pentagon officials could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters on Monday evening.
The ruling marks the latest salvo in a string of legal fights over Covid-19 vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden that have proven deeply controversial among conservatives.
NBC news has the link to the story here.
Category: COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Military issues
“If these servicemembers are willing to sacrifice to protect these freedoms, they should not be denied these freedoms”
Very well stated.
Austin and Milley’s intertwined, sweaty, shivering, triple-jabbed-yet-CoupVID-1984-riddled bodies couldn’t be reached for comment.
The 2LT that was supposed to bring up their chicken noodle soup has defected to the Russians after he found Paul Eaton, Jon Soltz, and Jeremy Broussard dressed as gimps tied up in the closet.
Pray for them all.
Thank God for some sanity and rationality left in the judicial ranks!
(Not that this judge is the only one.)
One of your federal judges, Graybeard: Reed O’Connor, Northern District of Texas, appointed by a Republican president, George W. Bush.
What about Light Infantry?
Word
The US Army Soccer Team?
If you are interested, the decision can be found here:
https://firstliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Navy-SEALs-PI-Order-.pdf
The decision makes several disturbing claims based on the evidence. First, no religious exemption has every been approved, although secular exemptions have been approved.
The Court this says this:
In one egregious example, Navy SEAL 26 was approved for a four-week program in Maryland to treat deployment-related traumatic brain injury.25 He told his commanding officer that he could travel in his own vehicle to the medical facility, which did not have a vaccine requirement for its patients. His commanding officer told him he was not allowed
to travel because he was unvaccinated. SEAL 26 missed the opportunity to receive treatment,
despite his pending religious accommodation request. Second, some Plaintiffs have suffered injury because they submitted religious accommodation requests. Many Plaintiffs have been told that merely requesting a religious accommodation will result in their removal from the Naval Special Warfare community and loss of their Trident.
The court also notes that the required paperwork to file for a religious exemption is already filled out with a denial before going to other offices.
No matter how you feel about vaccinated or not being vaccinated, the Navy’s position and procedures don’t pass any test of ensuring people’s Constitutional rights.
Outrageous.
Agreed, one of the tests courts often use in these cases is exactly how many exemptions were given under the rules for exemptions.
When there is a very small number, or in this case zero exemptions granted, it’s a reasonable legal judgment to conclude that the exemptions are in name only and not for serious consideration. Which usually renders the case decision in favor of the person(s) seeking the exemptions.
Pretty much everything that Biteme and his handlers have done is abhorrent to the Constitution and American values.
Maybe this is a case that will get all the way to the SCOTUS and the Justices thereof will find the backbone to put a stop to all of this. Hey, a guy can dream about things other than OAM can’t he?
As long as your dream is me getting my way, as in, this lunacy ends and the grownups take charge and put these spoiled, entitled, profoundly stupid children on permanent time-out…to include taking away their electronics, cancelling their allowances and assigning them chores – like mopping the rain.
It feels like those who made these policies and seem gleeful at firing our most capable, trained and righteously lethal sheepdogs do so out of revenge for not being capable themselves. So, they’re going to prove their manliness by corralling those capable of protecting them. We have a Pentagon full of Jamie Duttons. We need a few Beth Duttons.
Spot on OAM!
If anyone knows, will this apply to anyone who risks being booted if they apply for an exemption, or is it limited to this one case?
Someone should ask the False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) his expert opinion on this issue as he was once the Commander of SEAL Team 4.
Or maybe Phil Monkress was the Commander of Navy SEAL Team 4 in the “Neverending Story”.
Only Phildo can clarify….
Cool.
Now make sure it applies to the rest of the sailors throughout the Fleet facing the same repercussions.
This quote from the above, “The ruling marks the latest salvo in a string of legal fights over Covid-19 vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden that have proven deeply controversial among conservatives.” is why Fox is the most watched network news. Many of those who I know who are most stridently anti-Covid-vax are also deeply liberal, being actual educated scientists or those who understand actual science. Also, let’s not discuss how the entirety of the Left Wing said they would not and told others not to get a Covid vax while DJT was at the helm and developing said vax.
In the world of my youth, journalists would be prefacing introductions to every statement by those now demanding vax and proof via “papers” of this sudden hypocrisy as blatant politics. But now, the once-vaunted, trusted NBC adds that line or the equivalent. Back in the world of my youth, we laughed at what Pravda told their people, and couldn’t understand how the people could be dumb enough to believe it.
If one is not given any other information, one tends to accept what the “authority” says is the truth. Thus, the control of what people see and hear is vital.
You’re right about the way it was, OAM. I work in the media and can tell you that we get a lot of propaganda in my newspaper office, and not much in the way of news.