Supreme Court sides with Biden against unvaccinated Navy SEALs

The United States Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration on Friday against unvaccinated Navy SEALs. 

Frontline News reported earlier this month that the Department of Defense (DoD) filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to block unvaccinated Navy SEALs from being deployed on missions, even as geopolitical tensions rise.   

The motion was appealing a January ruling by a Texas judge that blocked the Department of Defense from taking any “adverse action” against 35 SEALs who have not had the COVID-19 shot, defying the mandate imposed in August 2021. in February, a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas judge’s ruling.   

However, the DoD argued in the Supreme Court that the lower court’s ruling violates Biden's authority who, acting as commander-in-chief, can choose which troops to deploy and when, at his discretion.   

Six out of the nine Supreme Court justices ultimately agreed that troops’ movements are at the discretion of the commander-in-chief and granted the DoD’s motion. 

Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented. 

Alito noted in a separate dissent that the SEALs seemed to have been treated “shabbily” by the Navy, who denied their religious exemptions. 

The Biden administration has been on the warpath to limit the deployment of troops who have not been vaccinated. 

As reported by Frontline News, the Department of Defense has also been fighting to keep a naval warship docked because its commander is not vaccinated. 

Last month, Federal District Court Judge Steven Merryday issued a preliminary injunction that precludes the Navy from taking any disciplinary action against the commander of the Navy destroyer or a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel for being vaccine-free, which would constitute a violation of their religious freedom.  

The government said that the judge’s injunction was “profoundly concerning” and tried to claim that refusing the vaccine is a national security concern. 

“The prospect of a subordinate commander in charge of other Service members or military assets disregarding the orders of his or her superior for personal reasons, whatever they may be, is itself a manifest national security concern,” wrote Vice Admiral Daniel Dwyer, the head of U.S. 2nd Fleet, in a statement attached to the complaint.  

But the judge didn’t appear to buy this argument.  

Merryday accused the government of trying “to evoke the frightening prospect of a dire national emergency resulting from allegedly reckless and unlawful overreaching by the district judge.”  

A detailed letter written by U.S. Navy Commander Jay Furman last year warned that a vaccine mandate for military members is a national security threat.   

“Given the many unknowns and what we have come to learn most recently, mandatory COVID-19 vaccination may not only be rash, but perhaps become life-threatening to the nation vis-à-vis those dedicated to her defense, against very well-known strategic competitors,” Furman wrote.  

The Navy destroyer remains docked in Norfolk, Virginia as geopolitical tensions rise and the war between Russian and Ukraine roils on Europe’s doorstep.