'Allegedly Sham Process': Federal Court Okays SEALs' Lawsuit Citing DOD Vax Discrimination
A federal district court in Fort Worth, Texas issued an order on Wednesday allowing a class action lawsuit by several Navy SEALs and other Naval Special Warfare personnel to proceed against the U.S. Navy. The U.S. service members are fighting back because they were punished after filing religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor's 18-page order stated even though Congress has rescinded the vaccine mandate, the Navy's "sham" religious accommodation process that it used to punish thousands of sailors is still in place.
The Navy has done nothing to address the source of the problem, according to First Liberty Institute, the nonprofit law firm representing the Navy SEALs, sailors, and other service members in the lawsuit.
"This has been a long and difficult journey, but our Navy SEALs don't quit," said First Liberty Senior Counsel Danielle Runyan. "While some may believe the case ended after Congress forced the Navy to repeal the mandate, nothing could be further from the truth."
"Rescinding the mandate was just the first step, but the real harm to these brave warriors continues because there is still no valid process for religious accommodation," Runyan said. "First Liberty has stood arm-in-arm with our nation's sailors, and we will continue to do so for as long as it takes to win."
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As CBN News reported in January of 2022, Judge O'Connor issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Navy from disciplining or discharging 35 sailors who sued over the Navy's vaccine policy while their case played out. Many of the SEALs had already contracted and recovered from COVID-19, while some have had antibody tests showing that they also had acquired natural immunity.
O'Connor said the case could go forward as a class-action lawsuit, and issued a preliminary injunction covering the approximately 4,000 sailors who have objected on religious grounds to being vaccinated.
Both the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld that injunction. And even though the Fifth Circuit last year ruled the Navy's appeal of the injunction was moot because Congress rescinded the vaccine mandate, the court made clear that the case could continue in the district court to evaluate the Navy's broader religious discrimination because of the mandate.
O'Connor said at the time the larger group of sailors shared common characteristics with those who had sued. They had asked for and been denied an exemption to the vaccine requirement on religious grounds and were facing the threat of being discharged from the Navy.
Navy guidelines purportedly allow for exemptions to the vaccine requirement on religious and other grounds, including medical reasons and if a service member is about to leave the Navy.
The judge noted in his injunction order, "Each has submitted a religious accommodation request, and each has had his request denied, delayed, or dismissed on appeal. Exactly zero requests have been granted. And while Defendants encourage this Court to disregard the data, it is hard to imagine a more consistent display of discrimination."
CBN News previously reported that a directive issued by the Navy stated that if a SEAL declined the vaccine, the military could attempt to recover money that the government had spent on his training.
The Navy discharged a total of 1,878 of its sailors for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Navy's last COVID update dated Feb. 10, 2023.
Judge O'Connor in his latest opinion wrote, "Plaintiffs' supplemental briefing satisfies the Court that, '{W}hile the Mandate may be gone, the effects of that Mandate and the discriminatory treatment the Class Members were subject to because of the Mandate still linger.' That is because Defendants have announced no changes to its overarching religious accommodations process. According to Plaintiffs, this allegedly 'sham' process is what enabled the coercive and discriminatory treatment of the Class Members while their accommodation requests sat unadjudicated."
"The Mandate simply served as the catalyst that unveiled the problems with this broader process during the pandemic," O'Connor noted. "Plaintiffs should have their day in court."
The lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division, according to First Liberty.
As CBN News has reported, multiple courts have already ruled that the DOD and the various military branches violated the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) by denying requests for religious accommodation. In addition, thousands of service members have been forced to resign, prematurely retire, or have lost promotions and career opportunities.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced in August 2021 that all U.S. service members would be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine - a move that was supported by President Joe Biden.
Austin rescinded the order for all U.S. military members on Jan. 10, 2023, after President Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
During the 15 months the COVID mandate was in effect for all U.S. military service members, the Department of Defense (DOD) uniformly denied most of the 36,500 religious accommodation requests it received from troops to abstain from the experimental shot and involuntarily discharged more than 8,300 service members for refusing to take it, according to Liberty Counsel, a Christian religious rights law firm.
Of the more than 8,000 service members who were forced from the U.S. military for refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, only 43 tried to rejoin after the vaccine mandate was rescinded, according to data provided to CNN by the military branches.
