The law firm representing the nearly three dozen Navy SEALs who successfully sued the Department of Defense over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate has amended the complaint to make it a class-action case.
First Liberty Institute altered the suit on Monday and noted that should the judge rule in its favor, it would “protect every U.S. Navy service member who requested a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandate.”
Judge Reed O’Connor ruled in favor of the plaintiffs earlier this month, noting in a filing that “there is no COVID-19 exemption to the First Amendment” and adding, ‘There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
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Mike Berry, general counsel for First Liberty Institute, said in a statement, “Our clients are boldly leading the fight against the vaccine mandate, but no service member should face discipline or punishment for following their faith.”
“The fact that the military continues to demonstrate hostility to anyone who expresses religious objection to the vaccine mandate shows that the Biden Administration does not care about religious freedom,” he added. “The lawsuit seeks to protect as many service members as possible from further punishment. We have to put a stop to this before any more harm is done to our national security.”
The suit points out that the SEALs, all of whom are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, “do not object to safety measures that reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace.”
Their religious beliefs prevent them from taking the vaccine because they oppose the use of “abortion” and “fetal cell lines in development of the vaccine,” believe “that modifying one’s body is an affront to the Creator,” have received “direct, divine instruction not to receive the vaccine,” and are opposed to “injecting trace amounts of animal cells into one’s body.”
A Navy spokesperson declined to comment to the Washington Examiner regarding the updated filing, saying the service branch does not publicly discuss ongoing litigation.
The initial suit was not a challenge to the constitutionality of the mandate itself. Rather, the plaintiffs were arguing that the Department of Defense did not legitimately review their request for an exemption on religious grounds.
There have been nearly 4,000 requests for a religious exemption from active-duty and reserve sailors, and none had been granted as of Jan. 19. Of these requests, 3,217 came from active-duty members, while 764 were from the reserves. Twenty-two sailors, all of whom were within their first 180 days of active duty, were separated from the Navy for refusing the vaccine.
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There are roughly 5,100 active-duty sailors who remain unvaccinated long after the deadline, and this group amounts to less than 2% of the total force of nearly 350,000.
More than 13,000 service members across the military have made such requests, while only two Marines were able to receive the elusive exemption.
The Department of Justice and the Pentagon previously declined to comment on the litigation.
