House passes defense bill ending COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service The temporary restraining order means the military cannot punish airmen and Space Force guardians whose application for a religious exemption to one of the federally endorsed vaccines was denied or is still being processed. US Military has approved religious exemptions to vaccine mandate - CNN We took a very intentional approach of maintaining a laser-like focus on religious liberty, because we believe that that is the strongest legal basis, he said. Unlike VARES that is questioned a lot by the totally compromised medical establishment for accuracy, the U.S. military DMED (Defense Medical Epidemiology Database) reporting system is only submitted by military doctors and qualifies every single ICD (International Classification of Diseases) code in the military for Tricare billing to Humana Insurance covering over 6 million military personal. Compensation Programs for Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries - Congress 2:14:14 Pentagon exploring back pay for troops kicked out of military over vaccine mandate. And in some cases, according to some reports, its even more durable than the vaccine and you dont have to get boosters and things like that. Other federal court challenges to various COVID-19 vaccine mandates are ongoing. The first lawsuit to garner national attention, filed in Texas late last year, made a splash because its plaintiffs include SEALs, among the most elite of the militarys special operations forces. Theyre not following their own regulations. Court Delivers Win to Military Members Denied Religious Exemptions From Pentagon Vaccine Mandate, SCOTUS 101: Student Loans and Major Questions, Unpacking the Oral Arguments Against Bidens Student Loan Cancellation, Appeals Court Steals Show on ERA Amid Senate Panels Bid to Resurrect Dead Amendment, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments. Complainants push back on the militarys position that remaining unvaccinated endangers the force and undermines national security, since the vast majority of troops have received all of a one- or two-shot regimen. The Coast Guard issued guidance Monday announcing it was "taking action to remove" all administrative remark entries related to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate from reserve and active-duty records. Members face the same injury: violation of their constitutional freedom by defendants clear policy of discrimination against religious accommodation requests, wrote McFarland, of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio. Judge tosses lawsuit over military vaccination mandate | Coronavirus The decision sets the stage for a future trial or, possibly, the case winding its way up to the Supreme Court. Only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is manufactured using fetal cell lines. The free exercise of religion, even in the military, it triggers the strongest protection available in the law.. And yet people who work and I mean, youre coming in very close proximity with thousands of people per day, hundreds of people per hour. 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. Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Technology Artificial Intelligence Ask the CIO Automation Big Data CIO News Cloud Computing Cybersecurity IT Modernization Open Data/Transparency Reporter's Notebook Defense On DoD Army Navy Air Force Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. Air Force vaccine case will remain a class-action, appeals court rules The primary protest centers around fetal stem cells, which may or may not have originated with an aborted pregnancy. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. The chief of Irans nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, acknowledged the findings of the IAEA report. And our clients are, theyre stationed in various locations, quite a few of them are here in Texas. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. Additionally, "promotion records will be corrected by the [Department of the Air Force] who will remove or redact all adverse actions related to vaccine refusal," according to a Friday press release. 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. Per FDA guidance, these two vaccines are interchangeable and DoD health care providers should use doses distributed under the EUA to administer the vaccination series as if the doses were the licensed vaccine, " she wrote. Nearly 1,500 more people are exempt for medical or administrative reasons, such as severe allergic reactions or upcoming retirement. 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. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? Many religious exemption applications have explained that the service members werent aware of the use of fetal stem cells prior to all of the controversy over the COVID-19 vaccine, but for the purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, they dont have to explain themselves. death from COVID-19 vaccines administered after the declaration ends would be addressed in court under tort law unless the COVID-19 vaccines are added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP; 42 U.S.C. And then if you come back and you say, oh, no, but my exemption is a medical exemption [see Contraindications and Precautions]not a religious exemption, then the military says, Oh, well, in that case, we welcome you with open arms. Mike Barry:No, really, I mean, this is happening across the entire Department of Defense. All rights reserved. The law says that sincerely held religious beliefs are to be taken at face value. Brazil's Emerging Judicial Dictatorship National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program - Health Resources and Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. As part of the exemption process, service members are required to meet with a chaplain to work through their concerns. Alleged spikes in medical conditions among the military after COVID-19 In the Ohio case, 2nd Lt. Hunter Doster of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and more than a dozen other plaintiffs argue the Air Force is forcing them to lose their livelihoods or violate their religious beliefs by receiving vaccines they say are impure or have ties to abortion. The judge recognized that when he granted our [temporary restraining order] on Feb. 2 because toward the end, he said the public has an interest also in this because these are courageous skilled, individuals who are not easily replaceable, Staver said. And I havent heard of a single Starbucks shutting down. Two Service Members Sue Feds Over Military COVID Vaccine - Newsweek Court Delivers Win to Military Members Denied Religious Exemptions From The NAVADMIN, referencing the injunction, prevents adverse action against sailors who will not get the COVID-19 vaccine and submitted a religious exemptions request. When they inquired about seeking religious accommodation for the vaccine, the Navy informed many of them that they could face court-martial or involuntary separation if they refused to take the vaccine. The Florida case also expands the arguments past the religious exemption process, citing a handful of other arguments made by COVID-19 vaccine detractors. The lawsuit is one of two that have grabbed headlines in recent months, as the military has imposed mandatory vaccination deadlines that have since lapsed for all of the services and their components, save the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. WASHINGTON Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none . So I think that if one of these cases does end up in front of the Supreme Court, it will probably be addressed just on the narrow vaccine issue. A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration's coronavirus vaccination mandates,. Mike Barry:Well, I mean, thats the beauty of the way that the law works, right? The Pentagon formally dropped the requirement in January following a December vote in Congress to end the mandate. U.S. Military Service Members with Natural Immunity File Lawsuit over COVID Vaccine Mandate. 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. The Navy granted another 500 administrative exemptions, including temporary waivers for sailors planning to leave the service or in the middle of a permanent change-of-station move, for example. The Department of the Air Force, which also issues guidance for the Space Force, has detailed it will be rescinding letters of admonishment, counseling or reprimand; records of individual counseling; nonjudicial punishments; and current involuntary discharge proceedings connected to vaccine refusal. 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"There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. DOD Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., 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. In other words, its usually ill-advised to take an opinion on one subject or one issue, and then try to extrapolate and say and that and say, Well, that should apply across the board to all issues. 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. In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . Soldier, Marine lawsuit challenges mandatory COVID - Army Times More than 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 since the virus began spreading in December 2019, and the U.S. has recorded around 89 million cases. . Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. It also allows them to restrict sailors' movement "in order to comply with host nation quarantine regulations.". Right? Right? So everywhere else in society has been able to figure this out, but our military hasnt because they take such an iron fisted, draconian approach to everything. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. And that is textbook discrimination, right? All told the lawsuit includes 26 SEALs from the original complaint, plus five special warfare combatant crewmen, five divers and one explosive ordnance disposal technician who joined the case in late January. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors.