Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

> Oh look, yet another court case smacks down
> unconstitutional fake laws...

Oh smack, another of Biden's major fantasies bites the dust...
Fucking shame that it only applies to "religious beliefs"...
Absolutely shocking percentages of GovCorp compliant sheep
compared to rest of population...


Court Blocks Biden Admin From Punishing Unvaccinated Air Force Members

And New York COVID-19 Quarantine Rules Unconstitutional and Illegal: Judge

https://www.theepochtimes.com/court-blocks-biden-admin-from-punishing-unvaccinated-air-force-members_4599543.html
https://lc.org/071422OhioAirForceOrderTRO.pdf
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3091177/daf-covid-19-statistics-july-12-2022/

A federal district court in Ohio has temporarily blocked the Biden
administration from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on thousands of
U.S. Air Force service members who remain unvaccinated after having
opposed the shot on religious grounds but have had their religious
exemption applications denied.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland, who was appointed by former
President Donald Trump in late 2019, issued a temporary restraining order
filed on Thursday preventing the Biden administration from taking any
action for at least 14 days against any Air Force member who opted not to
take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The judge's ruling also grants the case "class status," which means the
temporary restraining order will grant relief to all members of the Air
Force who submitted a religious accommodation request from the COVID-19
vaccine mandate from Sept. 1, 2021, to the present, and were confirmed via
the Air Force Chaplains as having a sincerely held religious belief, but
had their requests denied or not yet acted upon. Plaintiffs had contended
that such a class would include over 12,000 airmen.

The action stems from a case filed in February 2022 challenging the Biden
administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Plaintiffs comprise 18
active-duty members of the Air Force serving at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio; Hurlburt Field in Florida; Randolph Air Force Base in Texas;
and Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia, plus all similarly affected
members.

"The court has already granted a preliminary injunction to our 18 original
plaintiffs," an attorney in the case, Tom Bruns of Siri & Glimstad law
firm, told The Epoch Times. "The court has now granted a class
certification—and that's kind of the historic moment—Air Force-wide,
service-wide, it covers every member of the Air Force. And now he's
saying, ‘Why shouldn't I grant the preliminary injunction to all those
folks?’"

McFarland wrote in his order (pdf) in granting the class status: "They
face separation from the Air Force and other disciplinary measures. A
single injunction would provide relief to the entire class. Indeed, the
main purpose of a [lawsuit class] is to provide relief through a single
injunction or declaratory judgment. Because Defendants have uniformly
maintained a policy of overriding Airmen’s religious objections to the
COVID-19 vaccine, they have acted ‘on grounds that apply generally to
the class.’

"Moreover, the class definition requires that a Chaplain certify that the
airman’s religious beliefs are sincerely held. Finally, a single
injunction would provide the proposed class with the relief they seek from
the harm they stand to suffer.”

McFarland gave Air Force officials until July 21 to file a response
"identifying why this Court should not grant a class-wide preliminary
injunction." He also gave plaintiffs an opportunity to then file a
response by July 25.

According to data from the Air Force, as of July 11, over 6,800 service
members have been denied religious accommodation requests. Only 104 have
had their applications approved. Meanwhile, 834 members have been
"administratively separated" by the force. According to the figures, 97.1
percent of the Air Force has been fully vaccinated, and 0.1 percent has
been partially vaccinated.

Epoch Times PhotoEpoch Times Photo Nurse and Army veteran Renee Langone
administers a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to U.S. Air Force (active duty
reservist) Dr. Pei-Chun McGregor at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center in
Boston, Mass., on Dec. 23, 2020. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Painful Consequences

McFarland's order came in the nick of time for some airmen. Many have
received notices in the last week, with a date of their final day, an
airman at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska told The Epoch Times.

One client was in the middle of a board hearing determining his future
with the service, Attorney Wendy Cox of Siri & Glimstad law firm, told The
Epoch Times. Objecting to the COVID-19 shot put airmen at risk of job loss
and disciplinary measures.

“One of the officers we were representing was facing $1,000 a month pay
reduction for two months as well as an official letter of reprimand,”
Cox said. “We've had people removed from positions of commands because
of their alleged violation of this order to get a vaccination, of which
they are unable to get because it violates their religious beliefs.”

“Some were stranded in foreign countries after refusing the shot, and
missed weddings. There’s some pretty tragic stories about what has
happened,” Cox said.

The Air Force officials told the court that they had every consequence
still on the table for service members who refused to get the shot, and
those consequences included everything up to court martial and two years
incarceration at Leavenworth, the attorneys said.

“The proof in the case was very clear. The Air Force tried to pretend
that they did individualized analysis of each service member’s religious
objection, and, and that did occur in terms of the service member proving
they had a sincerely held religious belief,” Bruns said. “But then the
Air Force, in its affidavits, proved that when it came to accommodating
that belief, they took the position we can't grant religious exemptions,
because we have to save these slots for administrative and medical
exemptions. So their own proof was ‘We didn't do the individualized
analysis on the back end, because we weren't granting any religious
exemptions.’ And it was only once the lawsuits got filed, that they
granted a few religious exemptions. And all of those folks were near the
end of their career.”

The Air Force wanted the airmen’s cases heard individually, but in his
decision allowing class status, McFarland noted how the Air Force did not
consider each case individually when denying religious accommodation
requests.

“Defendants appear to again argue that the court must individually
analyze each airmen's claims on the one hand, while systematically denying
all religious accommodation requests despite the factual differences
defendants claim the court should consider on the other,” McFarland
wrote.

“The Court appreciates there may be minor factual differences between
the members of the class, including roles, responsibilities, levels of
proximity, likelihood of deployment or travel, and ability to telework, as
well as different religious beliefs and reasons for objecting to the
COVID-19 vaccine.

"However, these minor differences do not outweigh that defendants' typical
response when receiving a religious accommodation request is to deny it.
The typicality of the putative class is reflected in the fact that
defendants have indiscriminately denied almost all religious accommodation
requests, and their use of form letters to deny the accommodation
requests. Such facts suggest that defendants do not individually weigh
each applicant's belief or circumstances in issuing their response,
further cementing the typicality of the class.”