Nightmare may continue for unvaccinated service members, say legal experts

Despite Joe Biden’s recent rescission of the military vaccine mandate, service members are not off the hook yet, say legal experts. 

As yet there is no intention to reinstate the over-8,000 members who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 injections. To date, the Army has booted 1,841 servicemembers, the Navy 2,032 and the Marine Corps 3,717 over their health choice. 

Furthermore, even those soldiers who were not discharged and remain in service will not necessarily be allowed to work. Frontline News has previously reported the Navy’s refusal to deploy 35 Navy SEALs who refused the shots, as well as a destroyer commanded by an unvaccinated officer. The Air Force has also been grounding pilots who have refused the COVID-19 injections. Nothing in Biden’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed last week requires military brass to allow soldiers to do their jobs. 

“There’s nothing to repair what’s already happened. There’s nothing to address the improper handling of medical exemptions, the violations for Religious Freedom Restoration Act and what the future looks like, whether it’s for religious reasons or other reasons,” military defense attorney R. Davis Younts told the Daily Caller. 

In addition, many service members have received official reprimands over their vaccination choice, permanently staining their records and potentially becoming a basis for discharge. The reprisals can also prevent those already discharged from re-enlisting and those who remain in service from promotion. 

Center for Law and Military Policy CEO Dwight Stirling says those reprimands are unlikely to be rescinded. 

“Are they going to be able to promote? Are they going to be able to hold command positions? Are they going to be able to deploy? Are they going to face some kind of coercion that people did before the mandate was even in place?” Younts questioned. 

Stirling believes the repeal only “prevents any adverse action being taken from this point on against unvaccinated service members.” 

However, the NDAA allows the Pentagon 30 days to decide how to roll back the vaccine mandate moving forward. Republican leadership, led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), wrote a strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding the reinstatement of discharged members due to vaccination status, but notably did not ask that the soldiers be given backpay.