A federal judge granted a temporary injunction Monday against a federal vaccine mandate for Navy SEALs, who sued President Biden because they were seeking a religious exemption.
Judge Reed O’Connor, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas, issued the stay in response to a lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute in November on behalf of 35 active-duty SEALs and three reservists seeking a religious exemption, as first reported by Fox News Digital.
“The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment,” O’Connor wrote in his ruling. “There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
The SEALs represented in the lawsuit were all members of various Christian denominations and objected to the vaccine mandate based on “their sincerely held religious beliefs,” claiming the military was violating their constitutional rights.
“We are aware of the injunction and are reviewing it,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
In December, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and several of his fellow Republicans in Congress signed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.
“Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America’s values,” said Mike Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. We’re pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security.”
O’Connor’s ruling comes as potentially thousands of U.S Marines face potential discharge for refusing the vaccine after the Department of Defense’s mandate on all active-duty service members went into effect for the Marine Corps on Nov. 28.
A major who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity described the military’s vaccine mandate as “an unconstitutional edict that I think is very targeted as a political purge, taking out some of the best and brightest soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians from the Space Force.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Last month it was reported that the US Military has currently granted ZERO religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.
Harbingers Daily reporter, Brandon Beckham, recently explained in his article, “Clash Over Vaccine Mandates & Religious Freedom Gains National Spotlight,” that it is “critical” that Christians stand strong for their religious freedom in the face of such mandates.
“For many Christians, rejecting a vaccine they view as violative of the sanctity of life is necessary to maintaining a clear conscience before God,” Beckham stated. “As Pastor John MacArthur writes, ‘Paul [the Apostle] spoke of the importance of a clear conscience (1 Timothy 3:9) and warned against anything that would defile or muddy the conscience (1 Corinthians 8:7; Titus 1:15).’”
“The clash between COVID-19 mandates and constitutionally protected religious freedom has revealed, for many Christians, evidence of an increasing secularization in society,” Beckham warned. “This includes a trend toward dismissing and demeaning religious values and replacing them with secular ethics.”
“The suppressing of a pure conscience, before God, is exactly what we are witnessing,” he wrote. “Replacing biblical values with secular ethics, to justify mandating COVID-19 vaccines, is an ungodly attack on conscience and biblical truth.”
“Now, more than ever, it is critical for Christians to stand for biblical truth and maintain their convictions,” he added. “In the face of society’s increasing trend toward secularization, it is important to pray for those being forced into First Amendment legal battles, as they seek to maintain a pure conscience before God by defending their religious beliefs.”
