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A group of army chaplains is urging the Supreme Court to cease the Department of Defense from imposing insurance policies that it says punish those that filed religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Supreme Court is presently contemplating the chaplains’ appeal of a Fourth Circuit choice to dismiss the case. While awaiting the ruling, the chaplains argue that “interim relief is necessary” to shield each the Court’s jurisdiction and the chaplains “from continuing irreparable harm, career destruction and/or discharge,” in accordance to the petition.
“Without interim relief to protect their chaplaincies, many Chaplains will have been forced out of the Armed Services before the merits of this case returns to this Court after remand,” the submitting states. “To preserve this Court’s future jurisdiction over the permanent resolution of the Chaplains’ challenge, the Court should issue interim relief now to ensure that DOD cannot play out the clock as a means to evade review of its unlawful Mandate.”
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A gaggle of army chaplains is asking the Supreme Court to cease the Department of Defense from imposing insurance policies that it says punish those that filed religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
The petition alleges that the DOD has not eliminated “adverse personnel actions” — unfavorable measures similar to poor health reviews which will have an effect on promotions and outcome in different penalties — from the chaplains’ recordsdata. The petition contends that the opposed personnel actions occurred due to the chaplains’ religious accomodation requests (RAR).
“These Chaplains’ careers are dead men walking, direct consequences of filing RARs but hidden by DOD’s emphasis on ‘solely’ as the adverse action’s cause,” the submitting states.
The chaplains filed exemptions that requested they be excused for religious causes from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s mandate that each one service-members obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.
The chaplains took up the lawsuit “when it became obvious DOD was denying all RARs, using that process to purge those who believed in following their faith-formed conscience by requesting RARs,” the court docket doc states.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
It provides: “Embedded within the Chaplains’ claims are foundational questions of religious freedom, free-speech, and petition rights — uniquely applied to military chaplains: ‘Who gets to decide what authority controls a chaplain’s conscience, the God of his or her faith, or a government bureaucrat?’”
The submitting cites the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a way to restrict DOD’s energy to impose on members of the Armed Services any given administration’s views about religious points.
“DOD’s open hostility to religion likely corresponds to the Armed Services’ recent and repeated failure to meet their recruiting goals,” the submitting claims.
The chaplains additionally spotlighted what they outlined because the Defense Department’s alleged “open rebellion” towards an order by Congress to absolutely “rescind” the vaccine mandate. The submitting prices that this “rebellion” was “hidden by DOD’s malicious compliance.”
The American flag hooked up to the American army uniform. (iStock)
According to the submitting, the Defense Department eliminated some associated disciplinary paperwork however made false assertions that each one “adverse actions” had been faraway from the recordsdata of these requesting religious exemptions.
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“It has not removed the ‘adverse personnel actions’ such as bad fitness reports causing failures of promotion, missed schooling, or the consequences thereof,” the chaplains’ petition states. “DOD’s numerous retaliatory ‘adverse actions’ against these Chaplains violate the law, breeding ‘contempt for law and inviting every man to become a law unto himself.’ That invitation has no place in DOD.”
A spokesperson for DOD mentioned it doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.
Fox News’ Shannon Bream, Bill Mears, Liz Friden and David Spunt contributed to this report.
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