Court allows Air Force officer to skirt coronavirus vaccine mandate on religious grounds, for now
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Air Force to let an officer stay unvaccinated against the coronavirus temporarily, without penalties, making her the first in the branch to receive a court injunction that excuses her from a military-wide vaccine mandate.
Though the military has granted hundreds of medical exemptions to service members, it has been much stricter about religious exemptions, which the officer had unsuccessfully requested. Last month, a federal court sided with 35 Navy sailors who had sued the Biden administration to grant them religious exemptions, and the Marines granted the military's first such exemptions.
Tuesday's preliminary injunction shields the officer from forced retirement for refusing a coronavirus vaccination until a final ruling is made. She objects to the vaccines "because of their connection to abortion," according to her attorneys. Cell lines used in the production of vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration are reproductions of fetal cells from abortions done in the 1970s and '80s; the shots themselves don't contain fetal cells.
In a statement, the nonprofit law firm representing the officer said she has natural immunity from a previous coronavirus infection. She has also been willing to work remotely and take periodic coronavirus tests, it said.
She "is compliant with masking, social distancing, and other practices, and, most importantly, has deeply held religious convictions against the vaccine. She sincerely believes that receiving one of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines would violate her conscience and would be contrary to her faith," the Thomas More Society said.
The Pentagon and Air Force last year rejected her request for religious exemption, citing the military's compelling interest in "maintaining the health and readiness" of its troops. The officer sued in January.
Judge Tilman E. Self of the U.S. District Court in Macon, Ga., sided with the officer.
"All Americans, especially the Court, want our country to maintain a military force that is powerful enough to thoroughly destroy any enemy who dares to challenge it," Self said in the ruling. "However, we also want a military force strong enough to respect and protect its service members' constitutional and statutory religious rights."
Fewer than a dozen Air Force members had received religious exemptions as of Feb. 4, though more than 1,500 medical exemptions have been given. The religious exemptions were granted in recent weeks, according to the attorneys for the Air Force officer.
"After we filed, [the Air Force] suddenly decided to start granting or claiming to grant religious exemptions, albeit only a handful," said Stephen Crampton, a senior counsel with the Thomas More Society.
As of Jan. 31, the Air Force had rejected 2,787 religious-exemption requests, court documents show. The Marines, the only branch to precede the Air Force in granting religious exemptions, had denied 3,212 of the 3,350 religious requests it had received by mid-January, the Associated Press reported.
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