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35 Navy SEALs and servicemembers file suit over vaccine mandate, await Fort Worth injunction ruling

"They're forcing them to choose between their faith and serving their country, that's un-American and illegal," said Mike Berry, general counsel with First Liberty.

FORT WORTH, Texas — What comes of a judge's ruling in a Fort Worth District Court could set major precedent across the U.S.

Thirty-five Navy SEALs and servicemembers have filed suit against President Joe Biden and the Department of Defense over its vaccine mandate.

"They're forcing them to choose between their faith and serving their country, that's un-American and illegal," said Mike Berry, general counsel with First Liberty.

The servicemembers are represented by Berry and First Liberty Institute, which is a legal non-profit based in Plano dedicated to defending religious liberty. 

Berry argues that their clients, all who identify as Christian, deserve religious accommodations and should not be subjected to the vaccine mandate.

"Of the thousands of religious exemptions that have been sought [the military] has not approved a single one. That is textbook discrimination," said Berry.

SMU professor Matthew Wilson teaches political science with an emphasis on religion. He says exemptions have been long-debated and fought over during the pandemic but not with great success.

"None of the major religious groups in the United States have spoken out against the vaccine," he said. "What we're really talking about here is people exercising individual conscience, kind of theological free-lancing," said Wilson.

The complaint reads the use of aborted fetal cells "force [servicemembers] to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs by causing them to participate in the abortion enterprise." 

The idea that aborted fetal cells have some connection to the vaccine, albeit a distant one, is a sticking point for the pro-life community. However, many experts have maintained that while aborted fetal cell lines collected generations ago may have been used in testing of the vaccine, it is not part of the current vaccine.   

The deadline to get the vaccine has passed but for the servicemembers in the suit, not without punishment.

"There are threats or warnings from their superiors telling them they'll be involuntarily separated," said Berry.

The suit was filed in mid-November and the group had filed for a preliminary injunction and that hearing was held Tuesday morning in Fort Worth. This is just one of several military related suits happening now related to the vaccine.

"What the government will have to prove is that there is a real public interest involved in this requirement," said Wilson.

A Fort Worth judge's answer to an injunction request could happen any day and, either way, will have major implications.

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