Federal judge halts vaccine mandate for Navy SEALs

A federal judge in Fort Worth granted an injunction against the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Biden administration temporarily halting the U.S. Navy’s vaccine mandate.

The 35 SEALs and other special warfare personnel claim the mandate violates their religious freedom and they have been denied exemptions.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas signed the injunction order barring the DOD from punishing the group after hearing testimony from several Navy SEALs in December as part of the group’s lawsuit. The service members had faced a range of military discipline actions for refusing the vaccine.

In his order, O’Connor stated, “The Navy service members 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. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”

The Navy implemented a mandate requiring all activeduty Navy service members to be fully vaccinated before Nov. 28 or face the “full range” of disciplinary action. While the Navy allows service members to apply for a religious exemption, O’Connor wrote in his order that the exemption process “by all accounts, it is theater.”

According to the injunction order, the Navy has not granted any of the religious accommodation requests and had denied at least 29 of the 35 accommodation requests as of Dec. 17. Those with pending religious exemption requests become nondeployable.

According to O’Connor, the Navy’s vaccine mandate causes a loss of religious liberties to those in the lawsuit. First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit interest law firm based in Plano, is representing the SEALs and other personnel in the lawsuit.

In a press release, Mike Berry General Counsel for First Liberty Institute, said, “Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America’s values. Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. We’re pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security.”

The ruling marks the latest salvo in the numerous legal fights over the Biden administration vaccine mandates that have proven controversial.

The complete text of the injunction can be found at https://firstliberty.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/01/Nav y-SEALs-PI-Order-.pdf.