BENTON – As Lt. Colonel Carla Wiese of Scott Air Force Base resists vaccination in U.S. district court, a Georgia judge considers certification of a class action for thousands like her.
An anonymous Air Force member moved to represent a class in March, after District Judge Tilman Self granted her an injunction.
Air Force policy provides that those who refuse must separate or retire.
Self found that as of Jan. 31, Air Force disapproved 2,787 religious requests, had 2,443 requests pending, and hadn’t granted one.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appealed the injunction.
In Texas in March, District Judge Reed O’Connor of Forth Worth certified a class action for 4,095 Navy personnel.
Austin appealed.
Self and O’Connor found the Air Force discriminated by exempting personnel for medical and administrative reasons while denying religious requests.
O’Connor found requests for religious exemption futile and dangerous.
Self’s injunction order let off more steam than standard for federal judges.
With bold face he began, “Your religious beliefs are sincere, it’s just not compatible with military service. That’s about as blunt as it gets.”
He explained in a footnote that he quoted from the plaintiff’s chain of command about why they denied her request.
“True, he undoubtedly spoke for himself, but when considering the Air Force’s abysmal record regarding religious accommodation requests, it turns out he was dead on target,” Self wrote.
He wrote that after he said Air Force didn’t grant any religious requests, Air Force sent him a list of nine requests it granted.
He studied the list and found Air Force granted all nine after he said it.
He found the plaintiff submitted an early retirement request under protest and stood to lose more than $1 million in salary and benefits.
He found 97.8 percent of Air Force was fully vaccinated and that the Air Force granted 3,313 medical and administrative exemptions.
He found it illogical that plaintiff’s refusal to take a vaccine would impede military function when service members still on duty are just as unvaccinated as her.
He asked if vaccine provided better protection than natural immunity coupled with preventive measures.
He noted the number of people infected after vaccination and booster, including defense secretary, chairman of the joint chiefs, and Marine commandant.
He concluded that a constitutional injury involving the right to freely exercise religion is not a trivial grievance.
“What real interest can our military leaders have in furthering a requirement that violates the very document they swore to support and defend?” he wrote.
He expressed confidence that Air Force would remain healthy enough to carry out its mission even if the plaintiff remains unvaccinated and isn’t forced to retire.
O’Connor of Forth Worth let off about as much steam in an injunction order he entered for 35 Navy Seals in January.
He found the nation asks military men and women to serve, suffer, and sacrifice.
“But we do not ask them to lay aside their citizenry and give up the very rights they have sworn to protect,” O’Connor wrote.
He found Navy hadn’t granted religious exemption to any vaccine in seven years.
He found 99.4 percent of active Navy service members were fully vaccinated.
He found four categories of beliefs among plaintiffs.
He found 21 opposed the use of aborted fetal cells in development of vaccines; 11 believed modifying one’s body is an affront to the Creator; two received direct divine instruction and one opposed injecting trace amounts of animal cells into one’s body.
He found commanding officers recommended exemption for many of them.
He found those who receive religious exemptions are medically disqualified and those who receive medical exemptions are not.
“But the activity itself, foregoing the vaccine, is identical,” he wrote.
He found that prior to the mandate, which the defense department adopted last August, six plaintiffs conducted large scale training and led courses.
He found 11 successfully deployed and the Navy awarded one a medal.
He found many plaintiffs were told that requesting accommodation would result in removal from a naval special warfare community and loss of their trident badge.
He found the Air Force barred plaintiffs from official and unofficial travel, denied access to family day, and assigned unpleasant work and schedules.
He found Air Force relieved them of leadership duties, denied opportunities for advancement, kicked them out of platoons, and threatened them with separation.
“Withholding judicial review is particularly illogical when participation in the administrative process invites the very harm plaintiffs seek to avoid,” he wrote.
In the class certification order that followed, O’Connor found it hard to imagine a more consistent display of discrimination.
He found the Navy has had extraordinary success in vaccinating its force yet the Navy described a catastrophic future if class members remain unvaccinated.
“Fortunately, defendants’ predictions are highly speculative,” he wrote.
“Plaintiffs’ vaccinated colleagues are becoming infected and contributing towards the massive loss of time and readiness that the Navy fears.”
In the Southern District of Illinois case, Lt. Col. Wiese sued the Air Force on July 10.
Her counsel Russell Newman of Nokomis, Fla. claimed every procedure, surgery, medication, and vaccination must have standard right of refusal.
He quoted a statement she wrote when she requested exemption.
“I am made in God’s image and nothing is to alter that,” Wiese wrote.
She wrote that abortion is a sin and aborted fetal cells are used in making vaccines.
She wrote that the vaccines alter one’s genetic makeup.
“The receipt of this shot would violate my religious beliefs as stated above and I would not be able to practice my faith as a Roman Catholic,” she wrote.
Newman wrote, “This is still the United States of America and we the people are still a free people.”
District Judge Staci Yandle set a hearing Aug. 8.