(Liberty Counsel) — The Marine Corps is still denying Christian service members exemptions from vaccines and discharging those who exercise their religious freedom.
It’s been four years since we dragged the Biden administration to court, forcing the Department of Defense (DOD) to drop the COVID shot mandates. We represented thousands of service members during that time, and our lawsuits forced the Biden regime to end the mandate.
So, it comes as an utter shock that with a new president and secretary of defense, U.S. military generals are refusing to follow court orders and instead continue to carry out ex-President Joe Biden’s vax mandate orders! Worse yet, this isn’t an isolated issue. We are getting calls from military members across the country!
Major Richard* has a stellar 12-year career with the U.S. Marine Corps. We represented Richard along with other Marines in 2021–2022 over Biden’s shot mandate.
Our case resulted in multiple restraining orders and injunctions, including a class-wide injunction that led to the rescinding of the unconstitutional mandate.
But the discrimination is happening once again.
Richard’s Marine Corps regiment has granted more than 50 medical exemptions to shots this year but refused to grant Richard’s request to be exempted from this year’s round of vaccines.
Richard’s career has been exemplary, so much so that his commanding officer entrusted him to lead a company of Marines.
But that didn’t stop former 1st Marine Logistic Group commanding general, Brigadier General Andrew M. Niebel, from recommending that Richard be discharged with a general discharge “under honorable conditions.” He characterized Richard’s performance as “substandard” and cited “misconduct” and “professional or moral dereliction of duty” solely because Richard refused to relinquish his legal right to religious exemption, which he won during our COVID shot court battle.
READ: Hundreds of doctors declare ‘international medical crisis’ over COVID jab injuries, deaths
Sadly, Major Richard is not alone. Other military members are coming to us with similar stories, and we are fighting to restore their rights and their careers — WITH BACK PAY for any wages lost.
Liberty Counsel is requesting that the Office of the Secretary of Defense require the secretary of the Navy and the commandant of the Marine Corps to:
- “Unsubstantiate and void” the discriminatory recommendations for separation.
- Rescind and remove all adverse paperwork and evaluations in his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) and Automated Performance Evaluation System (APES).
- Overturn the denial of the Fiscal Year 2024 Special Selection Board and retroactively grant promotions where due, fully restoring losses to include backpay.
- Expedite acceptance into Professional Military Education where applicable in order to allow affected members to “catch up” with their peer groups.
The Pentagon cannot repeat the costly mistake of forcing service members to choose between their religious convictions and their careers. Now more than ever, it is critical that the DOD retain qualified personnel and not lose them to the friendly fire of wrongfully denied religious accommodation requests, particularly where such denials result from an unfair and unlawful process. It is time for the military to commit to protecting the religious freedom and the rights of conscience of all service members within the military branches.
As I said above, I am shocked that we are still having to fight this fight — especially with President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in office. Perhaps it goes to show just how many Obama/Biden loyalists remain in the U.S. military.
Regardless, we are proud to, once again, serve the service members who protect our freedoms. It is an honor to protect theirs.
Last week, we filed two cases with the U.S. Supreme Court. One involves the pastor and congregants of Maryville Baptist Church in Kentucky who were placed on house arrest for attending an Easter Sunday parking lot service.
The other case is Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who was sent to prison for six days when she objected to issuing marriage licenses. This is a blockbuster, because we are asking the Court to overturn the 2015 Obergefell homosexual ‘marriage’ opinion and protect religious freedom rights.
