By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square
Even after the Coast Guard rescinded its vaccine mandate, their attorney says Coast Guard service members remain in limbo.
The nonprofit Thomas More Society filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over the Coast Guard.
Now speaking out on their behalf is a retired three-star vice admiral who filed a sworn declaration, hoping it would compel the judge presiding over their case to act.
They filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division on behalf of more than 1,200 Coast Guard plaintiffs.
Like thousands of other plaintiffs in other military mandate-related lawsuits, they filed religious accommodation requests – known as RARs – as exemptions, which were denied.
They then faced demotion, retaliation and involuntary discharge for refusing to take an experimental drug developed with or tested on aborted fetal cell lines. The plaintiffs argue that it violates their sincerely held religious beliefs. . . .
. . . . In light of the sacrifice so many in the Coast Guard have made before him, with him and after him, retired three-star Vice Admiral William Lee said he could not remain silent.
He told The Center Square, “I chose to speak out on this issue because I have questions, as do many Americans, about ethical and legal lines that may have been crossed when leaders forced an experimental vaccine on a workforce without informed consent and without due process under RFRA.
“At the heart of the matter is trust. If the most trusted institution in America is to maintain that hard-earned trust, then leaders currently in charge should be more than willing to examine, and put to bed, any remaining ambiguity in these matters, else we will be doomed to make the same mistake, or have the same arguments, next time around.” . . . (read more on Center Square)
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