This Monday, twenty-two states filed an amicus brief in the case of Navy Seals v. Biden. In the lawsuit, the federal government is threatening dozens of Navy Seals with punishment and discharge after rejecting their religious objections to certain Covid-19 shots. Many of these religious objections concern the shots' connection to aborted-fetal cell lines.
Disappointingly, South Dakota did not sign the joint legal brief.
The 22 signing states argue against the federal government's "near-blanket denial of religious exemptions from the Military Mandate." “The [federal] Administration’s near total denial rate for religious exemptions suggests—just standing on its own—that the Administration has cast aside [The Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s] demands to pursue a political decision to mandate widespread vaccination,” the brief reads.
The entire military force remains subject to a vaccine mandate adopted by the Department of Defense in August 2021. Tens of thousands of service members still face punishment or expulsion for not complying, including religious objectors. This includes an unknown number of South Dakota guardsmen.
Inexplicably, the DoD has ignored recent updates from the CDC, which no longer distinguishes between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in proposed protective measures.
Why does the DoD insist on punishing vaccine objectors? Who is going to speak up for our service members?