Pentagon asks Supreme Court to let it curb unvaccinated Navy SEAL deployments

The Defense Department filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court on Monday asking the justices to restore the department’s authority over the deployment of unvaccinated Navy SEALs.

The request follows a January ruling by a federal judge in Texas who temporarily blocked the department from halting the deployment of SEALs who refuse to comply with the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, and after an appeals court last month declined to put the judge’s order on hold.

According to the Biden administration’s filing, the lower court rulings have tied commanders’ hands and already have eroded health and safety protocols for the armed forces, including by forcing the Navy to deploy an unvaccinated SEAL to Hawaii “for duty on a submarine against its military judgment.”

“The Navy has an extraordinarily compelling interest in ensuring that the servicemembers who perform those missions are as physically and medically prepared as possible,” read the Biden administration’s court filing. “That includes vaccinating them against COVID-19, which is the least restrictive means of achieving that interest.”

The dispute arose after roughly three dozen service members assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command, including 26 Navy SEALs, challenged the Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccine mandate on religious grounds.

In January, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, temporarily blocked the military from taking any “adverse action” against the legal challengers, including making changes to training or deployment based on their unvaccinated status. 

Last month, a unanimous three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit declined to grant the Defense Department’s request to halt O’Connor’s order.

Within an hour of receiving the department’s emergency request, the Supreme Court asked the challengers to file a response by next Monday.

Updated: 2:30 p.m.