Judge Blocks Biden Administration from Firing Unvaccinated Civilian and Military Employees
Federal workers who are fighting President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandate on the grounds of religion have won a round in court.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District of Columbia on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order that protects military and civilian employees from being fired while their requests for religious exemptions to Biden’s vaccine mandate are being heard, according to Fox News.
“None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending,” Kollar-Kotelly ordered.
The judge also ruled that “active duty military plaintiffs, whose religious exception requests have been denied, will not be disciplined or separated during the pendency of their appeals,” according to Fox News.
The court further ordered that Biden and the top administration officials named in the lawsuit file a notice Friday to indicate whether they will agree that no plaintiff will be disciplined or terminated until there is a final ruling on the question of religious exemptions.
Twenty people had sued Biden and his top officials over the executive order that mandated vaccinations for all federal workers, civilian and military alike.
“The Biden administration has shown an unprecedented, cavalier attitude toward the rule of law and an utter ineptitude at basic constitutional contours,” attorney Michael Yoder, who represented those suing the administration, said in a statement.
“This combination is dangerous to American liberty,” Yoder said “Thankfully, our Constitution protects and secures the right to remain free from religious persecution and coercion.”
“With this order, we are one step closer to putting the Biden administration back in its place by limiting government to its enumerated powers. It’s time citizens and courts said no to tyranny. The Constitution does not need to be rewritten, it needs to be reread,” he said.
BREAKING: @Yoder_Esq with a HUGE WIN in Church v. Biden.
(Yes, that’s the actual case caption. For those playing along, 1:21-cv-2815)
This is an amazing development from the DC District Court in the stand for OUR RIGHTS against the unconstitutional vaccine mandates. pic.twitter.com/kWus7XQ4pp
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) October 28, 2021
The complaint Yoder filed indicated that those filing it, and others, would face termination on Nov. 22.
“Contemporaneous with the commencement of this action Plaintiffs have filed an Application for a Temporary Restraining Order (‘TRO’) and Preliminary Injunction to maintain the status quo of our federal governmental operations and to put an end to this involuntary game of Monty Hall millions of Americans have been compelled to involuntary play,” the complaint said.
“And while the currency of this game is not exclusively money but also the rights to life, liberty, and property, it would be imprudent to not address the magnitude of the economic impact of this case,” it said.
The complaint said the stakes were high for those suing and the nation as a whole.
“Absent the injunctive relief Plaintiffs request herein, Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm as their fundamental rights are trampled and they lose their jobs for no reason beyond their sincerely held religious beliefs,” the complaint said.
When religious exemptions are denied and thousands of Americans lose jobs because of their faith in God…
Let me be clear:
— I will sue you RELENTLESSLYGod is more important than money.
— learn that lesson or I’ll teach it to you— Mike Yoder (@Yoder_Esq) October 9, 2021
“If Defendants are not enjoined from enforcing the Vaccine Mandates, hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military personnel will be forcibly removed from our government and Armed Forces, thrusting our nation into a state more vulnerable than the United States has experienced in a quarter of a millennium,” it said.
The complaint noted that abortion was central to the religious objections offered by those suing the Biden administration.
“Because all three of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines are developed and produced from, tested with, researched on, or otherwise connected with the aborted fetal cell lines HEK-293 and PER.C6, Plaintiffs’ sincerely held religious beliefs compel them to abstain from obtaining or injecting any of these products into their body, regardless of the perceived benefit or rationale,” the complaint said.
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