Federal Court Grants Navy SEALS Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
January 4, 2022 | District of Columbia, Virginia
A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction to a group of 35 Navy Special Warfare servicemembers—among them 26 Navy SEALs—who sued the Biden administration for denying them religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The preliminary injunction, issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, stops the Department of Defense from taking any actions against the group for refusing the jab while litigation plays out.
Non-profit law firm First Liberty Institute had filed the lawsuit and motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of the Navy servicemembers on Nov. 9, 2021.
“The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” Judge Reed O’Connor said in his order (pdf) on Monday. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
He also wrote, “Defendants must provide more than a broadly formulated interest in ‘national security.’ They must articulate a compelling interest in vaccinating the thirty-five religious servicemembers currently before the Court.”.. (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
