A policy group backed by former President Donald Trump has filed an amicus brief in support of roughly three dozen Navy SEALs suing the Department of Defense to get their vaccine exemption requests approved.
The America First Policy Institute, composed of many former Trump administration officials, filed the brief in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas on Monday.
Twenty-six Navy SEALs, five special warfare combatant craft crewmen, three Navy divers, and an explosive ordnance disposal technician are the plaintiffs, with President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the DOD, and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro named as the defendants in the suit filed earlier this month.
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“Forcing religious servicemembers to either violate their conscience or be negatively discharged undermines U.S. national security by directly causing an immediate, significant loss of American military strength for an order that illegally and unnecessarily undermines military readiness,” AFPI’s brief reads. “A ruling against Plaintiffs will result in long-term devastating effects on the morale, recruitment, and retention of our all-volunteer force.”
The brief provided three arguments in the SEALs’ defense. It first argued that “military budget cuts and misplaced priorities are already harming military readiness.” Secondly, “this mandate creates lifelong harm to religious service members by forcing them to accept the ‘moral injury’ of violating their conscience or face the consequences of a negative discharge.” The final argument states the “COVID Mandate Order is arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law because it violates the Immunization Program that it is required to follow.”
The Pentagon has repeatedly noted the vaccine mandate is a lawful order handed down by Austin in the face of this and other challenges.
“The Constitutional Litigation Partnership stands strong in supporting the United States Navy SEALS in their fight against the unconstitutional vaccine mandate,” said Pam Bondi, chairwoman of the AFPI’s Constitutional Litigation Partnership, in a statement.
“No one, including our military, should be required to choose between violating their religious beliefs and serving our country,” she added. “We stand united with our men and women in uniform and their families. These heroes have selflessly served our Nation and dedicated their lives to protecting our freedoms — it is now our turn to protect theirs.”
The original lawsuit explains the service members have all sought religious exemptions, though the Navy hadn’t granted any as of Nov. 17, according to its reporting data.
AFPI’s brief concluded by declaring the mandate is “both illegal and adverse to military readiness and will have grave consequences to American national security.”
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While the policy group argues military readiness will be hampered by the mandate, every branch has surpassed a 90% vaccination rate and more than 99% of active-duty Navy sailors have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine. The deadline is Sunday.
Mike Berry, lead counsel for the service members, previously told the Washington Examiner their case is “actually fairly straightforward,” because “the only thing the service member has to do is establish that they have a sincerely held religious beliefs and that the government is substantially burdening that sincerely held religious belief, that the government is substantially burdening their free exercise of religion.”
Additionally, the National Faith Advisory Board sent a letter to Austin last week signed by more than 1,700 faith leaders calling on the military to approve religious exemption requests.
“With the current threats we face — whether it be an emboldened Al-Qaeda or a rising communist regime in China — losing some of our military’s finest over a vaccine mandate would be a travesty,” read the letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “By not approving legitimate exemptions in a timely manner, you will be threatening the basic liberties of servicemen, servicewomen, and their families increasing the polarization of our armed forces, and potentially risking our national security.”
