First Liberty Institute announced this week it is now seeking a class-action lawsuit to defend every member of the U.S. Navy who has submitted a religious accommodation to avoid the mandatory vaccine.
Requesting a religious accommodation is allowed in the U.S. armed forces, obviously with no guarantee commanders will allow it, but the Pentagon has famously denied every single religious exemption, in every military branch, to date.
In a January 5 story, American Family News reported a federal judge granted First Liberty a temporary injunction on behalf of 35 Navy SEALs and also ripped the Navy for denying religious exemptions. In his ruling, Judge Reed O’Connor called the Navy’s process “theater” and further stated, “There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
It is not clear when the lawsuit will proceed after Judge O'Connor's ruling but First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys says the law firm decided, after reading O'Connor's favorable opinion, to ask the court to protect every sailor in uniform, too.
“So it's not just the most elite members of the Navy,” he tells AFN. “It's all of the sailors within the Navy that deserve the same protection as well."
