Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Monday he had filed an amicus brief to a lawsuit on behalf of U.S. military personnel against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The U.S. Navy SEALs v. Biden lawsuit features 35 Navy service members, who are assigned to Naval Special Warfare Command Units, challenging the administration’s vaccine decree on the basis of First Amendment protections.
The plaintiffs, who were not granted a religious exemption from the edict, are asserting their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
In a statement announcing the brief’s filing, Marshall railed against the progressive administration’s “heavy-handed approach” to its mass vaccination campaign.
“Perhaps more than any other of President Biden’s vaccine mandates, his heavy-handed approach has been most profoundly felt by the U.S. military,” said Marshall in a release. “Just over a year ago, military personal were ordered to begin taking COVID-19 vaccinations and many who asserted religious objections to the vaccine were summarily denied. Records indicate that while more than 4,000 Naval active duty and reserve sailors submitted requests for religious accommodations, all but a few dozen had their requests denied.”
According to Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer, service members are entitled to religious exemptions from forced vaccination.
“Many thousands in uniform are being denied their constitutional rights by the Biden administration’s blanket refusal to grant their wishes for religious exemption from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” he said. “U.S. military personnel deserve and are indeed entitled to the same First Amendment protections of their religious liberties as any other American citizen.”
Marshall joined state attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming in filing the brief before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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