Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall hailed a federal appeals court decision on Tuesday in a case supported by the State of Alabama that upheld the right of service members to seek religious exemptions to the U.S. Air Force’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
“An Airman may sacrifice much serving his country,” said Marshall. “That sacrifice should not include his right to religious liberty. We have protections in place to ensure that an Airman enjoys largely the same rights to religious liberty as his fellow citizens. Those include the Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This appeals court ruling underscores that the religious liberty of Air Force personnel cannot be trampled by the government.”
President Joe Biden wanted the COVID-19 vaccine more widely adopted by Americans. Congress would not pass vaccine mandates, so the President claimed broad executive powers to order Americans to take the vaccine. Many of these, including an unprecedented OSHA rule, were later blocked by the courts. One area where the mandates were enforced was in the U.S. military, as the President is constitutionally the commander n chief of the American armed forces. Biden’s Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, followed the President’s orders by ordering all DoD employees and service members to get the vaccine. The public was told that service members with a medical reason or a religious objection to the vaccine would not have to get the vaccination. The services, including the Air Force, routinely turned down those requests.
“After the Air Force ordered all their personnel receive COVID-19 vaccinations, nearly 10,000 service members sought religious exemptions,” Marshall said. “However, the Air Force has only granted 135 exemptions, with most of those involving personnel already scheduled to retire soon. In February, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Air Force service members seeking religious-liberty exceptions to the vaccine mandate. In March, a federal district court ruled in their favor, placing a preliminary injunction barring the Air Force from disciplining any member for claiming a religious-liberty exemption to the vaccine mandate.”
“After the Air Force appealed the federal district court ruling, I joined with 20 fellow attorneys general in supporting the statutory and constitutional rights of the Airmen who were denied their rights,” Marshall continued. “The victory this week in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ensures the injunction protecting religious exemptions will continue in effect for Air Force members, including those on active duty, in the reserves, in the Air National Guard, and in the Space Force.”
In similar cases, Attorney General Marshall joined 22 attorneys general in filing a brief in April before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of U.S. Armed Forces service members challenging the U.S. Defense Department’s similar failure to grant religious exemptions for DoD personnel from COVID vaccinations. Marshall also filed a brief in August supporting U.S. Navy personnel’s right to seek a religious exemption from the Navy’s COVID vaccination mandate.
In defense of Air Force service members, Marshall was joined by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming in filing a brief in September.
U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Marsha Blackburn, and others have argued that this is having a tremendous impact on military readiness.
“America’s military recruitment is at an all-time low, putting us further behind adversaries like China,” said Sen. Tuberville. “We should not be jeopardizing our national security by putting more restrictions on members of our military who wish to serve. I am proud to support legislation to bolster military readiness and support our men and women in uniform.”
The Montgomery-based Foundation for Moral Law hailed the decision as a long-overdue victory for military personnel.
Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe wrote in a statement, “The Sixth Circuit accepted our argument that the USAF failed to give its personnel the individualized determinations that the Constitution requires in Stanley v. Illinois.”
“I love the Air Force, but I also love the men and women who wear Air Force blue, and I believe they are entitled to the protection of the Constitution they have sworn to defend,” Eidsmoe said.
The Foundation filed an amicus brief in the case.
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