COVID-19

Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Navy Vaccine Mandate

Published

2 weeks ago

January 5, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

Just as Sara Carter predicted Monday on Fox News, the Biden administration’s legal troubles over vaccine and booster mandates faces a long road and ‘big fight’ ahead. 35 Navy service members who sought religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine have received redemption from a federal judge. On Monday, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas blocked the Department of Defense from taking action against the service members.

The 35 service members, from the Navy SEALS and Naval Special Warfare Command, sued the Biden administration over its vaccine mandate thrust upon the military. The service members say they refused to take a Covid vaccine “for a variety of reasons based upon their Christian faith.”

“The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” O’Connor wrote in his 26-page injunction. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”

O’Connor added that while he “does not make light of COVID-19′s impact on the military,” the “loss of religious liberties outweighs any forthcoming harm to the Navy.” In response, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Post officials are reviewing the injunction.

“Judge O’Connor’s decision came days before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments on separate vaccine mandates by the Biden administration, covering employers with 100 or more workers and health care workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-affiliated facilities” reports National Review.

COVID-19

Freedom in the UK: Johnson ends ‘all Covid measures’ including mask wearing

Published

1 day ago

January 19, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

The United Kingdom is enjoying a huge announcement. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced “the end of all Covid measures introduced to combat the Omicron variant – compulsory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, guidance to work from home and vaccine certificates – from next week” reports The Guardian.

For those with coronavirus, the legal requirement for them to self-isolate will also be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24. Johnson also announced an immediate end for students to wear masks at secondary schools.

“From tomorrow we will no longer require face masks in classrooms and the Department for Education will shortly remove national guidance on their use in communal areas,” Johnson told the Commons.

“In the country at large we will continue to suggest the use of face coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces, particularly when you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet, but we will trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalise anyone who chooses not to wear one.”

The Prime Minister said Covid data was “showing that time and again this government got the toughest decisions right” and that plan B rules that were put in place in December could all be lifted from next Thursday, the day after a pre-existing review point.

The Guardian notes Britain had expected Johnson would soon be ending work-from-home guidance and the mandate to show a certificate proving vaccination or proof of a recent negative Covid test. However, the immediate lifting of mandatory mask rules will “come as a surprise to some.”

Johnson is receiving some push back from some teaching and health unions. The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said ministers would “regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency”.

Joint general secretary of the National Education Union Mary Bousted said, “While the trend amongst secondary aged children is down, it is however uncertain, due to the short time schools have been back since the Christmas holidays, that this trend will continue. Such uncertainty could lead to a pronounced risk of increased disruption with children and staff having to isolate.”