The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denied a request from the U.S. Navy that would have forced a group of service members to get the coronavirus vaccine.
A three-judge panel rejected the Navy’s request to stay the injunction on Monday. The case revolves around roughly three dozen Navy SEALs, all of whom sought but did not receive a religious exemption from the vaccine and thus face separation from the service.
“The Navy has not accommodated any religious request to abstain from any vaccination in seven years, and to date it has denied all religiously based claims for exemption from COVID-19 vaccination,” the judges wrote. “But evidence, recited previously and not meaningfully challenged here, suggests that the Navy has effectively stacked the deck against even those exemptions supported by Plaintiffs’ immediate commanding officers and military chaplains.”
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The First Liberty Institute, which is representing the group, filed a motion in late January seeking to get the judge to hold the Navy in contempt for allegedly retaliating against the SEALs.
“Events around the world remind us daily that there are those who seek to harm America. Our military should be welcoming service members, not forcing them out because of their religious beliefs,” Mike Berry, director of military affairs for First Liberty Institute, said in a statement.
“The purge of religious servicemembers is not just devastating to morale, but it harms America’s national security,” he added. “It’s time for our military to honor its constitutional obligations and grant religious accommodations for service members with sincere religious objections to the vaccine. We’re grateful the Fifth Circuit denied the Navy’s motion.”
The lawsuit was not a challenge to the constitutionality of the mandate itself, rather, the SEALs argued that the Department of Defense did not legitimately review their request for an exemption on religious grounds. There have been roughly 16,000 such requests, while the services have granted a total of 20 of them.
The lawsuit also points out that the SEALs, all of whom are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, “do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace,” though their objection is with the supposed ingredients of the vaccine.
They oppose the use of “abortion” and “fetal cell lines in development of the vaccine,” believe “that modifying one’s body is an affront to the Creator,” have received “direct, divine instruction not to receive the vaccine,” and are opposed to “injecting trace amounts of animal cells into one’s body,” even though these are used in a number of commonly taken medicines.
Other common medications that were developed similarly include Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Benadryl, and Claritin. The Coast Guard has suggested chaplains ask whether service members who are seeking a religious accommodation have taken any of those drugs, according to Fox News.
At least 95% of each active-duty service branch is fully vaccinated, while the remaining holdouts are either in the exemption process, had one granted, or will be discharged. As of last week, slightly more than 1,100 service members from the Air Force, Marines, and Navy had been discharged for refusing the vaccine, while the Army announced on Monday that it will begin separations “immediately,” though it has not.
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A Navy spokesperson directed the Washington Examiner to the Department of Justice, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Eugene R. Fidell, a law adjunct professor at New York University and an expert in military justice, told the Washington Examiner, “We have entered a legal funhouse when claims like these overtake and forgive the expression, trump the professional judgment of the people responsible for the defense of this country.”
He said it’s “highly likely” the Supreme Court will review the case and noted that the Court of Appeals ruling can have a “persuasive effect” on the courts, some of which are handling similar lawsuits.
