In 2021, First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of dozens of Navy SEALs and Navy Special Operators, which was later expanded to cover a class of all Navy service members, who had religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
First Liberty Institute and Hacker Stephens LLP have now announced a settlement has been reached with the U.S. Department of the Navy.
First Liberty Institute shares:
The settlement ensures that Navy service members who refused the COVID vaccine for religious reasons will now have an opportunity to have their records corrected and their careers protected, considering the next three promotion “boards must not consider any adverse information related solely to COVID-19 vaccine refusal in cases in which a religious accommodation was requested.” Servicemembers who elected to leave service after being mistreated by the Navy will also get their records corrected. The Navy also agreed to post a statement affirming the Navy’s respect for religious service members, provide more training for commanders who review religious accommodation requests, revise a policy related to accommodation requests that was changed during the mandate, and pay $1.5 million in attorneys’ fees.
“This has been a long and difficult journey, but the Navy SEALs never gave up,” said Danielle Runyan, Chair of the Military Practice Group and Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “We are thrilled that those members of the Navy who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their Navy careers.”
“This was a hard-fought but significant victory for all members of the military and the principle of religious liberty,” added Heather Gebelin Hacker, lead counsel for the class along with Andrew Stephens and a partner at Hacker Stephens LLP.
Additionally, the Navy has agreed to “re-review the personnel records of all Class Members to ensure that the U.S. Navy has permanently removed records indicating administrative separation processing or proceedings, formal counseling, and non-judicial punishment actions taken against the Class Member solely on the basis of non-compliance with the COVID-19 Mandate and adverse information related to non-compliance with the COVID-19 Mandate.”
Ted Macie shared his thoughts on X, saying the case saved his Naval career. Macie was one of 231 people who signed the Declaration of Military Accountability regarding the handling of the COVID vaccine mandate for members of the military.
This case saved my Naval career (at the time, 18 years active duty). I was about to be involuntarily separated over an illegal shot mandate, with a religious accommodation in process, instead, by the grace of God I’m retiring soon, with what will be 23 years of service, 3 reserve, and 20 active duty.
By no stretch of the imagination, am I ungrateful for this case, the lawyers and team. While this is a small victory for the SEALs, their families, and @1stLiberty, we (231 signatories of the Declaration for Military Accountability) need to keep pressing. Yes, there was a settlement and some relief, however, there is still nothing to prevent something like this from happening again. There must be accountability. People need to go to jail, at a minimum.
The effect of this case also created a pivotal moment in my family’s life. Since we thought I was going to be kicked out, we planned for me to run for Congress. This was never an aspiration, it was out of necessity. After experiencing 1. the blatant disregard for the law and people’s Constitutional rights, 2. the level of deception going on between pharma, FDA the DoD and 3. the lack of urgency or action by Congress, we quickly figured out that the majority of them are puppets and/or cowards with minimal integrity.
Additionally, since I was able to remain on active duty, I ended up becoming a whistleblower by tracking the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database DMED for unusual signals such as 151% Myocarditis and 973% increase in AD Pilot heart failure occurrences. After a video went viral, I was put under investigation instead of them investigating the information I was alerting up my chain of command, all the way to the @USNavyCNO. I’ve been quiet about it but I’m still dealing with whistleblower retaliation…more to that story another time.
We had no other option but to become a part of the solution, especially for our children. There’s more back story, but my wife @MaraMacie ended up running for US Congress in FL D5 because of what we experienced, fought tooth and nail for and the beautiful people we’ve met along the way. She’s built for this.
All the hardship just adds fuel to our fire. We’re going to save this place whether they like or not.
Ted’s wife Mara Macie is running for Congress in Florida’s 5th District.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/victory-navy-reaches-settlement-sailors-who-refused-covid/
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