US court forbids Pentagon to punish military personnel refusing vaccinations

Yesterday a federal court banned the US Department of Defence from punishing a group of SEALs and other Special Forces personnel who refused to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 on religious grounds, Reuters reported.

US District Judge Reed O'Connor, in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 35 Special Forces personnel, issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Navy and the Department of Defence from enforcing the punishment.

"The Navy service members, in this case, seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms," the judge wrote in a 26-page decision.

Previously, soldiers had been subjected to several disciplinary actions for refusing the vaccine.