The group includes 14 men and two women. I mean, this is quickly becoming a national security issue for our nation. 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. 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. Because of those peoples religious beliefs and religious convictions. In response to Military.com stating that the COVID-19 "vaccines have some rare side effects, including heart inflammation that has affected at least 22 service members, according to a study from the JAMA Network," an attorney working with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and whistle blowers in the U.S. military are pushing back against . If the court certifies the class does the class become all unvaccinated airmen or everyone whos been denied a religious exemption? CBC News reached out multiple times to Galati, who is listed as the spokesperson for the lawsuit in a press release issued by Vaccine Choice Canada. Thats really prohibited by the by the courts considering these types of cases. The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines do not need fetal cell lines for development or production but were tested on fetal cell lines replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to ensure their efficacy. 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,. A federal appellate judge has dealt another blow to the military's coronavirus vaccine mandate by allowing a high-profile class-action lawsuit against the Air Force to move forward. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? And our clients are, theyre stationed in various locations, quite a few of them are here in Texas. The vaccine mandate for military personnel was put in place in August, with a deadline of Sept. 15. 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. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in the press release that the service is still, however, encouraging vaccinations. In his order, OConnor granted an injunction against the Biden administration and the Department of Defense, preventing them from enforcing the vaccine mandate against any of the named service members who had applied for a religious exemption. The prospect of dishonorable discharges has been a concern for some against vaccine mandates, but that type of discharge can only be handed down through a court-martial conviction. The lawsuit filed by Air Force members and other federal employees claims that "the US Constitution and numerous federal laws make it unlawful to compel persons to be vaccinated." The plaintiffs. 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The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. The latest data from the military show that roughly 30,000 active-duty service members remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite a Defense Department mandate issued in August and deadlines. 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. 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. 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All of the military services are currently reworking their policies to adjust separation and promotion records for service members who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, after the Pentagon ended the inoculation mandate last month. This whole thing is really unprecedented, right? I think that a process that is not a sham looks a little bit something like the military regardless of what branch were talking about, takes an honest look and says okay, what is this persons job or their function? The story seems pretty similar to whats going on with these airmen. Given the prevailing public health guidelines and the state of the virus, there is currently no intention to require universal vaccination of all service members, Ross said. Theyre not following federal law. And now people will be able to take the analysis Supreme Court used and say, Okay, the way that they analyzed this issue, that might give us some indication of how they would analyze other issues, right. Jared Serbu: Last thing, theres a lot of these vaccine cases, even just military vaccine cases floating around in various district courts and circuits the moment. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. 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. In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . And yet were short, were saying that were having a hard time recruiting people. 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. Hes one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate, and he spoke more to Jared Serbu on theFederal Drive with Tom Temin. 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. The lawsuit attempts to overturn Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order that active-duty service members are required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 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. Mike Barry:No, really, I mean, this is happening across the entire Department of Defense. And thats why this is a sham.Jared Serbu: The Air Force case is a putative class action. Pope Francis has called vaccination against COVID-19 a moral obligation and an act of love., Frequently people let themselves be influenced by the ideology of the moment, often bolstered by baseless information or poorly documented facts, he said in January, adding that vaccines are not a magical means of healing, yet surely they represent, in addition to other treatments that need to be developed, the most reasonable solution for the prevention of the disease.. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. Nov. 2, 2021. WASHINGTON (AP) A bill to rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military and provide nearly $858 billion for national defense passed the House on Thursday as. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. They argue that their 1st Amendment rights are being infringed upon, because their sincerely held religious beliefs prevent them from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. According data submitted in the Florida case on Feb. 8: The services have declined to provide any details about the circumstances of the religious approvals, but both lawsuits allege that at least one of those Marines is due to leave service later this year. Still, the organization said Covaxin is still a safe and effective product. What the government will have to prove, in both cases, is that while its granted thousands of medical and administrative exemptions though many of those are temporary that the high bar for approval of religious exemptions is necessary for keeping the force healthy and deployable. "It hasn't done it yet. 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. And that is textbook discrimination, right? The Air Force has approved 135 religious exemption requests out of thousands submitted so far. The only difference is really is that each branch of the military has their own internal regulations and policies for how they adjudicate these things. 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. "There are no current COVID-19 vaccine restrictions on deployments or assignments for the Marine Corps as a service," Capt. Feb. 23, 2023. 1:51:01 Awkward Andrea Mitchell lectures MSNBC reporter about using term "pro-life" 2:09:32 Baby "chop shop" FOIA lawsuit. "We will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all personnel to ensure readiness, facilitate mission accomplishment, and protect the force.". The lawsuit emerges as the latest development in an ongoing fight between state leaders and the federal government as Gov. Two Eglin Air Force base officers are among the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. military personnel. The lawsuit, in which 14 men and two women serving in the military are named as plaintiffs, names U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, three U.S. military service secretaries and other. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. 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. 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. Were going from a 50-step process to a zero-step process? Duncan asked. We are kicking out people by the thousands. All of the military services are currently reworking their policies to adjust separation and promotion records for service members who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, after the Pentagon. Theyre basically saying, Nope, the vaccine is the only way that were going to allow you to continue to remain in the service. And one of the things I forgot to mention was the whole concept of natural immunity. 3 min read POINT PLEASANT, NJ A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged. 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. 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. To date, no members of the Army or Space Force have received a religious exemption, though nine airmen and three Marines have been approved. "This guidance is a promise of what the Air Force is saying it will do," Bruns told Military.com. VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by Im happy to take that one from you. President Biden declared "the pandemic is over," yet is still pushing to discharge thousands of religious service members for their objections to taking the COVID-19 vaccine. 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. But the DoD is just saying Nope, we wont even recognize that we wont even consider it, even though they consider natural immunity for other communicable diseases and infections and things like that. msn back to msn home news Skip To Navigation We are hemorrhaging people like crazy, and were having a really hard time recruiting capable people to join our military. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. Well, the good news is the law is set up so that the government actually can win those cases, when all they have to do is demonstrate that they have a compelling interest. Theres a case to be made for turning these lawsuits into class action matters, Staver said, so that individual service members dont have to sue or just another case. The Supreme Court is reviewing a legal shield that tech companies have long relied on to avoid liability for content on their platforms. The . 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They will also have to make the case that vaccinating, or involuntarily discharging, every service member is the least restrictive means of keeping the force safe from COVID-19, rather than enforcing masking or social distancing or in some cases, grandfathering in troops who acquired some immunity after catching COVID-19. Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan noted that the administration had only reluctantly ended the military mandate after December congressional action, but Ross assured the panel that there are no plans to bring back the requirement. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), it doesnt, the sincerity issue is what everybody seems to be concerned with, right? 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. Yes, many of them have brought that and its a rubber stamp rejection, he said. And I havent heard of a single Starbucks shutting down. Jared Serbu: I want to go back to what you said earlier about the process being a sham, because I want to try and draw how much of an issue that actually is, in these cases. Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years. For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. On Jan. 10, the DOD officially rescinded its Aug. 24, 2021, and Nov. 30, 2021, memoranda mandating that all members of the U.S. military, including the National Guard and Ready Reserves, take the emergency use authorization COVID-19 shots or face discharge and other disciplinary measures. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. Essentially, while the Marines applied for exemptions on religious grounds, they were already entitled to a much more straightforward administrative exemption for troops soon to leave service or not currently with their units, which is likely the reason they were approved. 300aa-10-300aa-44). The first military COVID-19 vaccine mandate will take effect in November. It was just a bunch of window dressing, on what was really a foregone conclusion of 100% of religious exemption requests were going to be disapproved, Berry said. The judge agreed, issuing an injunction against discipline for the sailors on Jan. 3. 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 Heritage Foundation, a petitioner in the case challenging the private-sector vaccine mandate,has asked the courtto invalidate the governments order. He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . And so all of them have requested religious accommodations from the vaccine mandate, which is, of course, something that DoD regulations and even federal law, clearly permit and allow. 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 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. But in terms of the underlying legal issues that are raised, no, theyre exactly the same. Here, Plaintiffs must decide whether to lose their livelihoods or violate sincerely held religious beliefs. Is there any assurance on the record, that there will be no deployment decisions based on vaccination? Judge James Ho, one of three judges hearing the case asked Department of Justice lawyer Casen Ross. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. 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. For the Texas case, its more likely those sailors will receive religious exemptions, but that they wont necessarily change the way the military mandates vaccines or reviews exemptions. The population of people seeking religious accommodations now is fairly small.. 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. The free exercise of religion, even in the military, it triggers the strongest protection available in the law.. DOD Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., Court documents show that two plaintiffs in Doster v. Kendall took the two-dose Covaxin vaccine, created in India, to comply with the Pentagons requirement. Pfizer Inc wants to intervene in a Texas federal lawsuit seeking information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used in licensing the company's COVID-19 vaccine, a litigation move that .