A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the US Department of Defence from punishing a group of Navy SEALs and other special forces members who refused COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds.
The ruling this past Monday (3 January) marks the latest salvo in a string of legal fights over COVID-19 vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden that are deeply controversial among conservatives.
Reuters reports that Judge Reed O'Connor, acting in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 35 special forces service members, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Navy and Defence Department from enforcing the mandate.
Reed, who was appointed to the federal bench in Texas by President George W. Bush, said the Navy had not granted a single religious exemption to the vaccine rule.
“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 licence to abrogate those freedoms,” the judge wrote in a 26-page decision.
The service members had faced a range of military disciplinary actions for refusing the vaccine.
First Liberty Institute, a legal organisation dedicated to defending American religious freedoms, which represented the plaintiff service members, hailed the ruling as a victory.
“Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and Americaʼs values," said Mike Berry, the institute's general counsel.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
COVID-19 has spurred a litigatory pandemic in US
US Supreme Court again rejects religious challenge to vaccine mandate
US federal appeals court stays Biden’s mandatory vaccine policy
Court rules Biden vaccine mandate ‘fatally flawed’ and ‘staggeringly over-broad’