A federal judge in Georgia on Tuesday has temporarily allowed an Air Force officer to remain unvaccinated against COVID over the vaccine’s ‘connection to abortion’, making her the first member of the branch to be excused from the military-wide vaccine mandate.
U.S. District Court Judge Tillman E. Self III granted a preliminary injunction for the anonymous Air Force Reserve officer in court documents obtained by DailyMail.com that were shared on Tuesday. The judge’s order described the Air Force’s procedure to accept a low rate of religion-based coronavirus vaccine exemptions as ‘illusory and insincere.’
The judge, who is based in Macon, Georgia, ruled the Air Force had infringed the officer’s First Amendment rights when the internal review process rejected her initial filing. She completed a religion-based waiver last year and appealed the Air Force’s rejection in December of last year.
The court’s decision comes eight days after more than 3,000 service members in the Air Force were granted exemptions for medical or nonreligious reasons – a first within the military’s branch.
‘It seems illogical to think, let alone argue, that plaintiff’s religious-based refusal to take a [coronavirus] vaccine would ‘seriously impede’ military function when the Air Force has at least 3,300 other service members still on duty who are just as unvaccinated as her,’ Self’s order read in court documents.
‘The only difference is that plaintiff is unvaccinated because she followed her religion and the others were granted either a medical or administrative exemption from receiving a [coronavirus] vaccine.’
U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self III, serving at the Court for the Middle District of Georgia, granted the unnamed Air Force officer temporary approval to remain unvaccinated, which is against the U.S. military’s vaccine mandate
The anonymous Air Force officer is the first member of the military branch to be given exemption – a potential breakthrough for others service members seeking religious accommodations for their requests. Pictured: A member of the 165th Airlift Wing in Georgia receives a COVID vaccine
The lawsuit was filed on January 6 on behalf of the Air Force officer from the Robins Air Force base in Macon Georgia. At the time, the military branch had not yet allowed any religion-based exemptions with the first nine approved cases only coming on February 8.
Overall, the Air Force has rejected 3,665 religion-based requests and still had to consider 3,288 others, as of Feb. 8, according to internal military data. The Air Force had discharged 142 active-duty service members for not taking the vaccine, according to a statement from last week.
‘The Department of the Air Force is aware of the preliminary injunction and will abide by the court’s order until the matter is legally resolved. The Air Force has no other comments about this ongoing litigation,’ Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.
The Air Force officer involved in the lawsuit’s proceedings is believed be a 25-year veteran who doesn’t have a history of breaching disciplinary rules within the branch.
In the order, her role has been described as ‘an administrative position in the Air Force Reserve’ that would not allow her to engage in any physical combat or military operations. She is likely to be a civilian employee within the Robins Air Force Base.
In addition to her lawsuit, the officer has filed a separate request for religious-based accommodation to the coronavirus vaccine mandate as a civilian, but the Air Force had yet to make a ruling on it before a federal judge in Texas in January halted the Biden Administration from imposing a vaccine mandate for civilians working for the federal government.
If she is not granted exemption from the military-wide vaccine mandate, put into place by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in August, the officer will likely retire from the Air Force ‘under protest.’
Her argument in the lawsuit is that she cannot be vaccinated due to her Christian faith – citing she is against abortion, labelling it as ‘a grave evil.’
The three main options for COVID vaccination – Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna – have been approved and backed by the US government. One of them – made by Johnson and Johnson – was tested and developed using fetal cell lines, but the vaccines themselves do not contain any aborted fetal cells or fetal tissue. That means that there are no fetal cells or fetal tissue in injections.
The orders of several religious group, including the Vatican, have come out in support of the vaccines, saying they were morally acceptable.
‘Plaintiff sincerely believes that receiving a vaccine that was derived from or tested on aborted fetal tissue in its development would violate her conscience and is contrary to her faith,’ the lawsuit reads. ‘… Fidelity to her religious beliefs is more important to plaintiff than her career and compensation, but the Constitution prohibits defendants from forcing her to choose between her beliefs and her employment.’
The officer’s argument in the lawsuit is that she cannot be vaccinated due to her Christian faith – citing she is against abortion, labelling it as ‘a grave evil.’
Overall, the Air Force has rejected 3,665 religion-based requests and still had to consider 3,288 others, as of Feb. 8, according to internal military data. The Air Force is composed of 328,255 active service members
The lawsuit also shared details on the officer’s ‘natural immunity’ after testing positive from contracting COVID in 2020. In December of last year, the woman had done an antibodies test, which showed that she still contained some in her system.
She is also willing to ‘take regular [coronavirus] tests when working in-person on the base, wear a mask, socially distance and work remotely as appropriate,’ the lawsuit read.
In total, the Air Force officer is at least the 38th U.S. service member approved a court injunction preventing the Pentagon from penalizing her for not complying with the vaccine mandate.
A federal judge in Texas granted 35 Navy service members – nine of them ‘Navy special operators’ and 26 Navy SEALS – a preliminary injunctions against penalties in January. Last month, another federal judge in Florida blocked sanctions from the military to punish a Navy officer and Marine Corps officer in a separate case.
All the judges have so far refused to grant a nationwide injunction to shelter all anti-vaxx active-service members from penalties related to potential refusal to not follow the vaccine mandate. In her lawsuit, the Air Force officer had shared her support for the idea, Self wrote in his order.
However, he said in his order that her arguments in the lawsuit ‘simply don’t warrant a nationwide injunction.’
Self, who is a four-year Army veteran, wrote the Air Force should review its procedure relating to service members seeking religion-based exemptions.
‘With such a marked record disfavoring religious accommodation requests, the court easily finds that the Air Force’s process to protect religious rights is both illusory and insincere,’ he wrote. ‘In short, it’s just theater.’
