A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Marine and a sailor who refused the coronavirus vaccine over their religious convictions.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled Friday that the service branches “have failed manifestly” to meet the requirements of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which mandates that they approve religious exemptions unless there’s compelling government interest and no less restrictive alternative available.
The judge also made it clear that neither the Navy commander nor the Marine lieutenant colonel, both of whom testified and remained anonymous through the case, should face “any punitive or retaliatory measure” while they’re awaiting a final judgment.
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Merryday previously issued a temporary order barring the military from disciplining either service member.
The judge also noted that the injunction would’ve only been issued if it had “a substantial likelihood of success on the merits,” a “substantial likelihood of irreparable injury absent an injection,” an “imbalance of equities favoring the movant,” and an “unlikelihood of the injections materially injuring the public interest.”
The lawsuit is being brought by the Liberty Counsel, a religious organization, and in a previous statement, the group said the service members were scheduled to be disciplined Feb. 2 and 3 before the judge’s initial ruling.
“This order vindicates the rule of law, which the Department of Defense and every military branch have violated with this unlawful COVID shot mandate,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement in response to the judge’s ruling Friday. “These brave service members give their lives to defend the Constitution, and sadly the freedom they fight to preserve was denied them — until today!”
“These abusive actions against these military heroes under the guise of a vaccine mandate carried out by unlawful orders have now collided with the rule of law — and the law won,” he added. “Freedom is still alive for those who fight to defend her. The bravery of these military warriors to fight the enemy on foreign soil is equally, if not more, demonstrated when they are willing to fight unlawful orders emanating from the Department of Defense.”
Religious exemptions from the coronavirus vaccine have been practically nonexistent, though each branch has a mid-90% vaccination rate for active-duty troops.
One sailor in the Individual Ready Reserve had a religious exemption conditionally approved, though he or she will need to get fully vaccinated if they’re called up to active-duty or reserve status, while six Marines and nine airmen make up everyone in the U.S. military who had their religious exemption approved — even though there have been more than 16,800 requests.
The Army, which has not granted any religious exemptions, has said it will start separations “immediately” but have yet to release data indicating they’ve begun.
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There have been a handful of other lawsuits regarding the mandate as well, though with varying degrees of success.
Last month, a judge ruled in favor of roughly three dozen Navy SEALs who sued the Department of Defense alleging that their religious exemption requests were not legitimately considered before getting rejected. The lawyers for the SEALs later filed another complaint alleging that the Navy had retaliated against them.
