Religious Exemptions for Military Vaccine Mandate Hard to Come By

The Marine Corps granted two religious exemption requests for the coronavirus vaccine, the service announced Thursday, marking the first time any such accommodation was affirmed despite thousands of requests.

Religious exemptions are hard to come by in the military. This is the first the Marines have granted in at least a decade, according to the Military Times. The lack of such accommodations as it relates to the coronavirus has also become a source of political division, a microcosm of the perpetual debate regarding whether mandating the vaccine comports with people’s First Amendment rights.

Even though each service branch has reached the mid-90th percentile in vaccination rate among active-duty troops, the select few who have refused, a count that is approximately in the tens of thousands, are finding allies on the political right.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers and the America First Policy Institute, a policy group backed by former President Donald Trump, filed an amicus brief in support of a group of roughly three dozen Navy SEALs who successfully sued the Department of Defense alleging that their religious exemption requests were not legitimately considered before getting rejected.

During Thursday’s press briefing, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby again declined to outline DOD’s next steps related to the judge’s decision. (Read more from “Religious Exemptions for Military Vaccine Mandate Hard to Come By” HERE)

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