A lawsuit filed Tuesday by a group of Navy service members asks a federal court in Texas to prevent the Biden Administration from enforcing the federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate. They also want the court to declare the vaccination mandate an unlawful policy and end it entirely.
The First Liberty Institute filed their legal action in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of 35 members of the United States Navy. The 35 plaintiffs are assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command and 26 of them are Navy SEALs, five are enlisted Combatant Craft Crew, three are Navy divers, and one is an enlisted Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technician.
The sailors presently serve at various classified and confidential locations, domestic and abroad, that they cannot disclose in a public proceeding, according to their lawyers, who added they also may not disclose their names in a public proceeding without creating a significant risk of compromising their missions, operational security, and personal safety.
In addition to President Biden, the Department of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy are named as defendants in the federal matter.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro issued a message to the Navy on Aug. 30 directing all active-duty naval personnel to become fully vaccinated within 90 days. The Navy notified sailors that failure to comply with the Navy vaccine mandate by the established deadline (Nov. 28, 2021) would result in immediate adverse consequences, up to and including court-martial (criminal) prosecution and involuntary separation from the Navy.
The lawyers argue the administration and the Navy have discretion when it comes to granting religious accommodations. They point to the Navy Military Personnel Manual sections pertaining to immunization exemptions for religious beliefs and other regulations, which provide, “[I]mmunization requirements may be waived when requested by the member based on religious objection.”
“A Navy spokesperson recently admitted that ‘multiple religious accommodation requests related to the COVID vaccine mandate have been adjudicated and none have yet been approved,'” said the plaintiffs’ attorneys. “The spokesman added that ‘[I]n the past seven years, no religious exemption from vaccination waivers were approved for any other vaccine.'”
“This disdain for religious vaccine accommodations contrasts with Defendants’ grant of certain secular vaccine exemptions,” the service members’ lawyers added. “The spokesperson admitted that the Navy has granted ‘five permanent medical exemptions.'”
All of the sailors suing the government object to receiving a COVID-19 vaccination based on what they call their sincerely held religious beliefs as members of various denominations of the Christian faith. They are Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestants and point to their religious beliefs regarding life and abortion.
“Plaintiffs are unable to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines due to what they believe and understand is a connection between these vaccines and their testing, development, or production using aborted fetal cell lines,” their lawyers noted.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs’ rights have been violated by the vaccination policy and they want an injunction to prevent the enforcement of the vaccination policies. They also ask the court to declare the vaccination policies unlawful and set them aside, in addition to requests for reimbursement for legal expenses and any other relief the court may deem appropriate.
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