by Jorge Gomez • 3 minutes
The Trump administration is promising to reinstate and reimburse service members who were dismissed for declining to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
“This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay,” President Trump said on Monday during his inaugural speech.
About 8,000 troops were forced out of the service for refusing the order, according to The Military Times.
Pete Hegseth—President Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary—echoed the same policy position during his confirmation hearing last week.
“Tens of thousands of service members were kicked out because of an experimental vaccine,” Hegseth said. “In President Trump’s Defense Department, they will be apologized to. They will be reinstated, reinstituted with pay and rank.”
First Liberty fought a lengthy legal battle to stop the Biden administration from punishing our nation’s warriors. Our legal team secured the first major federal court injunction that stopped the Defense Department from punishing our U.S. Navy SEAL clients and other service members. Last July, we secured a massive win for our clients and thousands of Navy personnel.
“We are thrilled that those members of the military who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their military careers and are grateful to President Trump for standing with our military and restoring these brave, faithful warriors,” said David Hacker, Vice President of Litigation and Senior Counsel at First Liberty.
Our lawsuit was originally filed on behalf of dozens of U.S. Navy SEALs, other members of the Navy Special Warfare community, and Navy Special Operators and was later expanded to cover a class of all Navy service members who had religious objections to the military’s vaccine mandate. That legal victory was huge for our clients. It was a full and complete win that rights the wrongs done to these brave heroes. Plus, this settlement impacted many more of America’s military personnel. It’s a broad win that set an important precedent and gave all Navy service members more religious freedom protections than ever before.
The Biden administration and Pentagon officials punished and horribly mistreated thousands of service members who requested a legal, religious accommodation to the military vaccine mandate. Religious accommodation requests were denied without being given the consideration required by law.
Countless military heroes—including some of First Liberty’s own team members—were denied deployment and advancement opportunities, and even threatened with court-martial simply because they wanted to serve in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs. In one case, a U.S. Navy SEAL sought medical treatment for a traumatic brain injury, but the Navy refused to allow him to travel to the medical clinic because of his vaccination status. Even their families were impacted, with many of them being denied medical insurance for their children or faced with losing their hard-earned military benefits.
If the Trump administration delivers on its promise, it will bring tremendous relief to those whose military careers were essentially ruined by the Biden administration’s punitive approach.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina also introduced the AMERICANS Act, a bill that would offer service members who were fired over the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate a chance to get their jobs back and receive back pay.
“It would restore the rank of anyone who was demoted over the vaccine mandate, offering them back pay and benefits for any compensation they lost as a result of their demotion. For those who do not want to rejoin service, it would restore their discharge to ‘honorable’ to restore their GI Bill and health care benefits,” Fox News reports.
The legislation states that the Pentagon must receive congressional approval to institute any additional COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Additionally, the Defense Department would be required to provide an exemption process for service members with sincerely held religious beliefs inconsistent with being vaccinated.
Punishing service members because they want to serve in accordance with their religious faith and convictions isn’t just wrong. It’s illegal. It violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, federal law and military regulations. The law is clear that all service members have a right to serve our country without having to violate their deeply held beliefs.
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