U.S. Navy settles with sailors over COVID-19 vaccine mandate
The U.S. Navy has reached a settlement with sailors who filed a lawsuit challenging the service’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, concluding a nearly four-year legal battle that involved Navy SEALs and other service members opposing their commander in chief.
Settlement details
Announced Wednesday, the agreement allows Navy sailors who refused the vaccine for religious reasons to have their records corrected. These sailors will also be protected against discrimination in promotion boards for the next three years, according to their attorneys.
Promotion boards “must not consider any adverse information related solely to COVID-19 vaccine refusal in cases in which a religious accommodation was requested,” stated the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization defending religious liberties, and the law firm Hacker Stephens LLP.
Record expungement and public statement
The Navy will review the personnel records of all plaintiffs to ensure that any information related to administrative separation, counseling, or nonjudicial punishment for failing to comply with the mandate is removed. Additionally, the Navy will correct the records of members who left the service and will issue a public statement “affirming the Navy’s respect for religious service members,” among other commitments.
Background of the lawsuit
The lawsuit, U.S. Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden, argued that the Navy and the Defense Department violated the First Amendment rights of service members by “categorically denying” their requests for religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine. Plaintiffs cited religious objections to the mRNA technology used in several vaccines, noting the use of cell lines from fetuses aborted in the 1970s and 1980s for their development. The vaccines themselves contain no aborted fetal tissue.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had issued a mandate on Aug. 24, 2021, requiring all service members to be immunized against COVID-19. At that time, tens of thousands of U.S. troops had contracted the illness, resulting in 41 deaths.
Legal journey
Filed in November 2021, the SEALs’ case eventually became a class action, representing at least 3,000 Navy service members who had filed religious accommodation requests by March 2022. A district court judge initially ruled against the Navy’s ability to punish sailors for refusing the vaccine, a decision upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals but later rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Although the Defense Department lifted the vaccine mandate in January 2023, as required by the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, the Fifth Circuit allowed the case to continue to examine the Navy’s handling of religious accommodations.
The Justice Department sought to dismiss the suit, but the court denied the request, leading to a settlement on behalf of all class members, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Legal fees and implications
As part of the settlement, the Navy agreed to pay $1.5 million in legal fees to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Previously, $1.8 million had been awarded in a separate settlement of a lawsuit against the Defense Department. The plaintiffs will not receive any compensation from either settlement, and the agreement does not constitute an admission of guilt or wrongdoing by either party.
Impact on service members
Between March 2020 and December 2022, the Pentagon recorded 740,942 cases of COVID-19 among troops, family members, DoD employees, and contractors, resulting in 690 deaths, including 96 service members. Approximately 17,000 service members refused the vaccine, leading to the discharge of more than 8,400, including 3,717 Marines, 2,041 Navy sailors, 1,841 Army soldiers, and 834 Air Force and Space Force members.
By March 2022, when the Navy halted discharges for vaccine refusal, the service had received 3,320 requests for religious exemptions from active-duty sailors and 864 from the Navy Reserve, none of which had been approved.
Statements from involved parties
Danielle Runyan, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute, described the case as “long and difficult” but praised the Navy SEALs for their perseverance. “We are thrilled that those members of the Navy who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their Navy careers,” Runyan said.
“This case was always about maintaining careers,” the organization added on its website. “To ensure that personnel files are corrected quickly and protective language is included in the selection board convening orders for the next three years … settlement is the best way to achieve that.”
The Navy did not provide a comment on the settlement by the time of publication. For more information about the settlement, visit the First Liberty Institute’s website.
