A Fort Worth Federal Judge has ruled that 35 members of the United States Navy’s elite SEALS team will not be stayed, according to the 5th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals. The court’s ruling effectively tells the Navy that it cannot discriminate against Navy personnel who seek exemptions to getting COVID-19 vaccinations based on religious reasons.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled in February that the Navy was blatantly discriminating against those who sought religious exemptions to the mandatory vaccinations. The Navy's request that the judge’s order be stayed pending an appeal was declined by O’Connor. The ruling by the 5th Circuit upholds O’Connor’s decision not to stay the order.
“The Navy has granted hundreds of medical exemptions from vaccination requirements, allowing those service members to seek medical waivers and become deployable,” the opinion by the appeals court said. “But it has not accommodated any religious objection to any vaccine in seven years, preventing those seeking such accommodations from even being considered for medical waivers.”
The names of the SEALS team members have not been released for security reasons. However, the initial complaint says one of the team is stationed in Fort Worth, giving a venue to the complaint.
Religious exemptions have been raised as an issue in other lawsuits over mandatory COVID-19 shots in the military.
“Based on the evidence that request was wrongly denied,” Michael Berry, attorney for the SEALS said. “It’s a case against, not just that one Navy SEAL, but all of our clients, and many, many others, actually, beyond the 35 that we represent.”
The status of the SEALS who refused the shot has been one of tedium, according to Berry. Most have been assigned to desk jobs.
“Even if you’re going to administratively reassign them from being on a Navy SEAL team to sitting behind a desk and passing out pieces of paper to people or pencils or whatever, that is a form of adverse action and the Navy cannot do that indefinitely,” Berry said.
The Navy has the option of further appeals, including to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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