News -- January 4, 2022: On Monday, a federal judge barred the U.S. Department of Defense from punishing
a group of Navy SEALs and other special forces members who refused COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds.
Judge Reed O’Connor, acting in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 35 special forces service members,
issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Navy and Defense Department from enforcing the mandate.
The service members had faced a range of military discipline actions for refusing the vaccine.
O'Conner was appointed by President George W. Bush to the federal bench in Texas.
“The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms,” O'Conner wrote in a 26 page decision.
Wnctimes Marjorie Farrington