U.S. Supreme Court docket backs Navy in combat with anti-vaccine SEALs

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court docket on Friday granted a request by President Joe Biden’s administration to let the Navy decline to deploy SEALs and different particular operations forces personnel who refused obligatory COVID-19 vaccination as a consequence of spiritual objections.

The court docket placed on maintain a part of a federal decide’s ruling stating that 26 members of the elite Navy SEALs and 9 different particular operations forces personnel have been entitled to a spiritual exemption to the vaccine requirement beneath the U.S. Structure’s First Modification, which protects the free train of faith, in addition to a regulation referred to as the Spiritual Freedom Restoration Act.

“On this case, the district court docket, whereas little question well-intentioned, in impact inserted itself into the Navy’s chain of command, overriding army commanders’ skilled army judgments,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion.

The court docket — which has a 6-3 conservative majority — was divided, with three conservative justices saying they might have denied the request.

In a dissenting opinion, conservative Justice Samuel Alito mentioned that the court docket “does an incredible injustice” to the Navy personnel who “seem to have been handled shabbily.”

Below one other a part of Texas-based U.S. District Court docket Choose Reed O’Connor’s ruling not affected by the Supreme Court docket motion, the service members can’t be disciplined or discharged because of refusing the vaccine.

Moreover the SEALs, the opposite 9 plaintiffs embody specialist naval craft crewmen, divers and a bomb disposal professional.

On Feb. 28, the New Orleans-based fifth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals rejected an analogous request from Biden’s administration.

The administration is contesting O’Connor’s Jan. 3 determination in favor of the servicemembers, by which the decide wrote that their “lack of spiritual liberties outweighs any forthcoming hurt to the Navy.”

Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; modifying by Jonathan Oatis

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