Federal appeals court blocks Navy from disciplining group of unvaccinated sailors

A federal appeals court blocked the Navy from disciplining a group of special warfare personnel who cited religious reasons in refusing to get vaccinated, dealing the latest blow to the Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for service members. 

In an opinion released late Monday, the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling from a Texas federal judge, who ordered the Navy to not take “any adverse action” against the 35 sailors, finding that the vaccine mandate violated their religious freedom.

The government asked the Fifth Circuit for a partial stay on the original order so that it could still consider vaccination status in order to make decisions on deployment and other assignments.

“The Navy has granted hundreds of medical exemptions from vaccination requirements, allowing those service members to seek medical waivers and become deployable,” a three-judge panel wrote. 

“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 panel continued.

The case was brought against President Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.

The Pentagon referred questions about the ruling to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. 

Active-duty Navy service members had until Nov. 28 to be fully vaccinated, and reservists had until Dec. 28. According to the Navy’s most recent COVID-19 update, released last Wednesday, the Navy has separated 320 personnel for not getting vaccinated.

The service has only conditionally granted one religious accommodation request for a member of the Individual Ready Reserve. That person is not required to be vaccinated wile in the reserve but must be vaccinated before returning to active service.

The panel said the defendants hadn’t proven “paramount interests” that justify vaccinating the 35 plaintiffs “In violation of their religious beliefs.”

“There is no evidence that the Navy has evacuated anyone from such missions due to COVID-19 since it instituted the vaccine mandate, but Plaintiffs engage in life-threatening actions that may create risks of equal or greater magnitude than the virus,” the panel wrote.

First Liberty Institute, which brought the case on behalf of the sailors, said it was grateful for the panel’s ruling.

“The purge of religious service members is not just devastating to morale, but it harms America’s national security,” Mike Berry, director of Military Affairs for First Liberty Institute, said in a statement.  

“It’s time for our military to honor its constitutional obligations and grant religious accommodations for service members with sincere religious objections to the vaccine. We’re grateful the Fifth Circuit denied the Navy’s motion,” he continued.

This isn’t the only pending litigation over religious accommodations to the military’s vaccine mandate. A group of Air Force officers filed a lawsuit in an Ohio federal court last week after being denied religious exemptions.