Denver Newsroom, Jan 4, 2022 / 16:05 pm
A federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration and the Department of Defense over their apparent refusal to grant several Christian Navy SEALS religious accommodations to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued the injunction, which prevents the Department of Defense from taking “any adverse action” against the plaintiffs in the case because of requests for religious accommodation, on Jan. 3.
In August 2021, the Pentagon announced that all service members would have to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In advance of that announcement, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services said that receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States was morally permissible, and that a vaccine mandate “seems prudent” and would be “very similar” to mandates already enforced in the military.
First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal group, say they filed a federal lawsuit and motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of “dozens” of U.S. Navy SEALs and other Naval Special Warfare personnel, who represent Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christianity.