The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Department of Defense to enforce its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for a group of unvaccinated Navy Seals.
Catch up fast: A federal judge in January upheld a lawsuit from 35 Navy Seals and filed the preliminary injunction on religious freedom grounds, saying the service members had a right to refuse the vaccine because of their beliefs.
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- The Biden administration has appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce the mandate so it can avoid possibly deploying unvaccinated Navy Seals.
What they’re saying: “Forbidding the Navy from considering respondents’ unvaccinated status in making deployment decisions or other assignments will jeopardize the success of any missions to which they are assigned,” Elizabeth Prelogar, solicitor general, argued in the administration’s application.