A federal judge has ordered the Navy and Defense Department to halt disciplinary procedures against 35 members
of the service's special operations community for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine -
- a move that could complicate the Pentagon's immunization mandate.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, with the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth,
ruled Monday that the DoD has violated the sailors' constitutional right to refuse the vaccine
based on their religious beliefs.
According to the order from Reed, "there is no military exclusion from our Constitution."
"The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms.
There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment," O'Connor wrote in a 26-page order.
The 35 sailors are not named in the lawsuit, citing privacy and a threat to national and operational security.
They include 26 enlisted or chief warrant Navy Sea, Air and Land, or SEAL, members,
five enlisted special warfare combatant craft crew members, three enlisted Navy divers and
an enlisted explosive ordnance disposal technician.
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