BRKG Judge Temporary Restraining Order on Air and Space Force COVID-19 Mandate Enforcement - UPDATE post #7

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Crusty Echo 7

Veteran Member
www.breitbart.com

Court: Air Force Can't Discharge Troops Who Filed for Religious Vaccine Exemptions

A court on Thursday prohibited the Air Force from enforcing the vaccine mandate against airmen who have filed for religious exemptions.
www.breitbart.com www.breitbart.com

Court: Air Force Cannot Discharge Troops Who Filed for Religious Exemptions from Vaccine Mandate


A District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Thursday morning issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Air Force from enforcing the vaccine mandate against any airman who has filed a request for a religious accommodation, according to court documents.

Judge Matthew W. McFarland granted a motion brought by airmen to extend a court order from March 31 that prohibited the Air Force from disciplining or discharging plaintiffs fighting the mandate based on their religious beliefs to all airmen who filed religious accommodation requests as a “class.”

The court order is a temporary restraining order (TRO), which is an emergency measure to preserve the status quo for up to 14 days while the judge is considering granting a preliminary injunction (PI), which would in turn last through the entire litigation process.
If the judge continues to believe that the mandate is illegal, then the court will convert the TRO to a PI at the end of that window, effectively protecting all of these service members while the Biden administration appeals the decision to the Sixth Circuit appellate court.

“For the reasons, that follow, Plaintiffs have satisfied the Rule 23(a) prerequisites, as well as Rule 23(b)(1)(a) and Rule 23(b)(2). Thus, class certification is warranted,” the court order said.

It further said: “Because the Plaintiffs have satisfied the necessary Rule 23 requirements, the Court will certify the following class:
All active-duty and active reserve members of the United States Air Force and Space Force, including but not limited to Air Force Academy Cadets, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) Cadets, Members of the Air Force Reserve Command, and any Airman who has sworn or affirmed the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office and is currently under command and could be deployed, who: (i) submitted a religious accommodation request to the Air Force from the Air Force’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement, where the request was submitted or was pending, from September 1, 2021 to the present; (ii) were confirmed as having had a sincerely held religious belief by or through Air Force Chaplains; and (iii) either had their requested accommodation denied or have not had action on that request.”
Click to expand...
The court has ordered the Air Force to file a supplemental brief no more than 10 pages in length and no later than July 21, 2022, identifying why the court should not grant a class-wide preliminary injunction.

The case is Doster v. Kendall, No. 1:22-cv-84 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.


Here are other pertinent links;

thomasmoresociety.org

News

thomasmoresociety.org thomasmoresociety.org

A copy of the order:


justthenews.com

Judge grants temporary injunction against COVID vax mandate for airmen seeking religious exemption

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland, of the Southern District of Ohio, granted a 14-day injunction in case.
justthenews.com justthenews.com

americanmilitarynews.com

US judge blocks Air Force from kicking out, punishing thousands of unvaccinated troops

On Thursday, a federal judge in Ohio put a temporary stop to the U.S. Air Force kicking out thousands of service members who remain unvaccinated against
americanmilitarynews.com americanmilitarynews.com

Not directly related to this case but big picture impacts

www.breitbart.com

More than 260,000 Troops Not Fully Vaccinated, Many Face Discharge

More than 260,000 troops are not fully vaccinated despite a Biden vaccine mandate for the military, and many of them could face discharge.
www.breitbart.com www.breitbart.com
 
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C

Crusty Echo 7

Veteran Member
Here’s a quick update; some Congressmen are talking about doing something for our Servicemen and the expected DoD response. An appeals court upheld the injunction for the Air & Space Forces.

If anyone has a moment please contact your legislators. We are just starting to see what I believe is the beginning the massive increase of career/life ending effects these shots are having
effects.

We have an active duty unit co-located with a reserve counterpart with roughly 325 people combined. Only six or so with mil/civilians are not injected. We have at least 10 folks who are shot-injured but that number is rapidly rising each month and is accelerating with each booster/flu shot. Just think about the scale when applied to the entire DoD. For rough numbers the AF has only around 10K without the shot. Anything to help is appreciated.
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The U.S. Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. is seen in an aerial view in an undated file photo. (Ivan Cholakov/Shutterstock)
The U.S. Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. is seen in an aerial view in an undated file photo. (Ivan Cholakov/Shutterstock)MORE
POLICIES & IMPACTS

Pentagon Won’t Yield on Ending COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate as Senators Threaten Budget​

By Jack Phillips
December 2, 2022 Updated: December 2, 2022

The Pentagon said it would continue to require that troops get COVID-19 vaccines even as Republican senators threaten to hold up the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) unless the Defense Department ends its vaccine mandate.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder claimed the controversial mandate is needed for U.S. national security purposes.

“As a warfighting organization, the health and readiness of our force is paramount. Vaccination for COVID is still a requirement,” Ryder told reporters at a news conference in response to a question about the legislation. He also refused to comment on Republican senators’ threats to withhold the NDAA.

“We’re going to ensure that our forces are properly vaccinated to be able to carry out their wartime mission,” Ryder added. “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals” about whether the NDAA gets blocked in Congress, he said.
Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and about 19 other senators said they would not vote for new defense spending if the mandate is in effect. The mandate, he argued, doesn’t make sense because COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent transmission of the virus and younger people face an elevated risk of heart inflammation from the shots.

While the U.S. military has required vaccines for soldiers, Paul said that the COVID-19 mandate is different. Since it was imposed last year by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, it has faced a number of lawsuits from U.S. armed service members, including Navy SEALs and officers, who have claimed that the Pentagon has not honored guidance to grant religious exemptions to the vaccines.

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“We’re taking action today by saying we will not vote to get on the NDAA—the defense authorization bill—unless we have a vote on ending this military vaccine mandate. That’s it,” Paul told reporters on Nov. 30. “Some will argue that the vaccine mandate in the military is not new. That is correct,” he added.
army vaccine A soldier watches another soldier receive his COVID-19 vaccination from Army Preventive Medical Services in Fort Knox, Ky., on Sept. 9, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that military recruitment has been poor in recent months and blamed it, in part, on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The U.S. Army missed its 2022 recruitment goal, for example, according to military officials.

“I want to urge [the Department of Defense] to change their policy. It literally is insane, I think, to drive men and women out of the military at the time we have recruiting shortages because of their refusal to take this vaccine,” Graham said earlier in the week.

“At the same time, we’ve had millions of people coming to the country illegally without vaccination that are being sent by our own government all over the country,” the Republican senator added. “This is not lost on most people. You’re kicking somebody out of the military who’s willing … because they won’t take a shot and you’re letting people come in by the millions unvaccinated.”

Court Activity​

Earlier this week, meanwhile, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld (pdf) an injunction against the U.S. Air Force’s order to penalize service members who have rejected getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Plaintiffs in the case have argued the mandate violates their religious freedom and First Amendment rights.
Noting that some 10,000 Air Force members have requested religious exemptions from the mandate, the court said that the “Air Force has granted only about 135 of these requests and only to those already planning to leave the service,” adding that it has “granted thousands of other exemptions for medical reasons (such as a pregnancy or allergy) or administrative reasons (such as a looming retirement).”
“Finding that these claims would likely succeed, the district court granted a preliminary injunction that barred the Air Force from disciplining the Plaintiffs for failing to take a vaccine. But its injunction did not interfere with the Air Force’s operational decisions over the Plaintiffs’ duties. The court then certified a class of thousands of similar service members and extended this injunction to the class,” it said.
The Air Force under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act “wrongly relied on its ‘broadly formulated’ reasons for the vaccine mandate to deny specific exemptions to the Plaintiffs, especially since it has granted secular exemptions to their colleagues,” the court added.


Jack Phillips
BREAKING NEWS REPORTER
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Jack Phillips is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York. He covers breaking news.
 
Lone_Hawk

Lone_Hawk

Resident Spook
This really pisses me off. When I was active duty Navy I didn't know, I just lined up with the rest. Now #2 daughter is a reserve USAF officer and got the vaxx, but is due to deploy in the spring and will get the works I'm sure. I pray for her and the others. This is BS
 
Ragnarok

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
Lone_Hawk said:
This really pisses me off. When I was active duty Navy I didn't know, I just lined up with the rest. Now #2 daughter is a reserve USAF officer and got the vaxx, but is due to deploy in the spring and will get the works I'm sure. I pray for her and the others. This is BS
Click to expand...

Of course, I took the required inoculations in BMT but there was one that sucked really bad. I think it was diphtheria? It would immobilize your arm for three days because it would affect the muscle tissue and cause a lot of pain at the injection site whenever the arm was moved.

After basic, I never took another shot because there was no way I was going to go three days without being able to play basketball. Luckily, I never received overseas duty or I would have had to catch up on every shot that I missed before deploying.
 
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