Trump Judges Are Now a Threat to America’s National Security
By: MARK JOSEPH STERN
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stunning decision transferring control over the Navy’s special operations forces from the commander-in-chief to a single federal judge in Texas. The 5th Circuit’s decision marks an astonishing infringement of President Joe Biden’s constitutional authority over the nation’s armed forces, directing him to follow the instructions of an unelected judge—rather than his own admirals—in deploying SEALs. High-ranking military personnel have testified under oath that this power grab constitutes a direct threat to the Navy’s operational abilities. As Russia invades Ukraine and declares a nuclear alert , Donald Trump’s judges are actively threatening America’s national security.
Like so many lawless cases in the 5th Circuit, this dispute began in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor. A notorious George W. Bush nominee, O’Connor is best known for attempting to abolish the Affordable Care Act in 2018, then getting reversed by a 7–2 vote at the Supreme Court last year. So when 35 Navy Special Warfare service members refused to comply with Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the armed forces, they brought their case to O’Connor. These service members—mostly SEALs, all represented by the far-right First Liberty Institute—claimed that their religious beliefs barred them from getting the shots. (Some said they heard “divine instruction not to receive the vaccine”; others asserted that the mRNA vaccines altered “the divine creation of their body by unnaturally inducing production of spike proteins.)
O’Connor predictably sided against Biden in January, granting a preliminary injunction of staggering scope on the grounds that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He awarded himself sweeping authority over the assignment of the plaintiffs, forcing the Navy to deploy them with operational units. When several plaintiffs were denied transfer to a duty station, they asked O’Connor to sanction the government for allegedly violating his order; he promptly ordered the Justice Department to explain why it should not be punished for failing to deploy these service members. (O’Connor has not yet decided whether to impose sanctions.)
As of today, this lone judge continues to oversee the plaintiffs’ assignments, forcing the Navy to train, equip, and deploy unvaccinated troops—with granular specificity as to their exact stations and duties.
Never before in the history of the United States has one district court judge exercised so much control over the armed forces. The Constitution assigns this authority to Congress and the president. There are certainly legal limits on executive discretion, including due process and constitutional safeguards against invidious discrimination. Right-wing lawyers have typically been loath to acknowledge any restrictions on the president’s war powers. Indeed, the conservative legal movement has endorsed a near-limitless vision of the commander-in-chief: Republican presidents, lawyers, and judges have argued that the Constitution allows the president to deploy troops without congressional approval , indefinitely detain enemy combatants , and exclude entire classes of immigrants from the country. But now it seems they draw the line at a simple vaccine requirement—even though all service members were already required to have at least nine vaccines upon enlistment.
Setting aside this hypocrisy, O’Connor’s order violated a fundamental principle of judicial restraint: Federal courts have long held that specific military assignments are never subject to judicial review. O’Connor appears to be the first judge ever to rule that, in fact, the courts can compel the armed forces to deploy a specific service member to a specific location to perform a specific duty. If his court were in a sane circuit, this unprecedented intrusion on the president’s power would be quashed almost instantly.
But O’Connor does not sit in a sane circuit; he sits in the 5th Circuit. This rogue court is now dominated by Trump judges , and it is breaking every rule to hobble Biden’s presidency. The government’s request for a stay landed in the laps of two infamous Trump judges, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Kurt Engelhardt , along with Edith Jones, an infamously partisan Ronald Reagan nominee.
In an unsigned opinion that bristled with hostility against the COVID-19 vaccine, this panel agreed that the mandate violated religious liberty. Noting that most service members are vaccinated, the panel declared that the Navy lacks the “paramount interests” necessary to overcome anti-vaxxers’ religious objections. It questioned the “efficacy” of the vaccine, noting that “the USS Milwaukee was ‘sidelined’ in December 2021 by a COVID-19 outbreak despite having a fully vaccinated crew.” (Unmentioned was the fact that the crew’s vaccination status prevented even more transmission and serious illness.) The panel then found that the Navy will not be “irreparably harmed” by O’Connor’s order. And it concluded that the “public interest” lies in keeping the plaintiffs unvaccinated.
These last two assertions—that both the Navy and the American people are better off with O’Connor’s continued supervision of unvaccinated special forces—is not just wrong. It is dangerously delusional. In support of the mandate, the Justice Department filed five declarations from high-ranking Navy officers: Admiral Daryl L. Caudle, Vice Admiral William Merz, Captain Joon Yun, Rear Admiral Gayle D. Shaffer, and Captain Christopher Brown.
These leaders explained that O’Connor’s order poses a direct threat to the military’s readiness and lethality. Service members in the Navy, they wrote, live in extremely close quarters with one another for lengthy periods. An outbreak on a ship or submarine can thwart an entire mission. O’Connor’s reasoning— “that the incremental impact” of adding a few unvaccinated members—is thus “incorrect and dangerous logic.” With each additional unvaccinated member, “the risk to personnel and risk to mission increases exponentially and unacceptably.” The mandate is thus “the most effective and readily available tool the Armed Forces has” to “protect vital United States’ national interests. Simply put, the less people who are vaccinated, the less ready the Navy is to deter aggression and, if required, fight and win in combat.”
“The bottom line,” these admirals and captains testified, “is the COVID-19 vaccine is keeping ships at sea, submarines on patrol and aircraft flying to protect and defend the Nation’s and our partners’ and allies’ interests.” Forcing the Navy to deploy unvaccinated members “puts the Nation’s ability to respond to crises around the world at unnecessary and self-inflicted risk.”
The military leaders also testified that O’Connor’s order had grievously undermined the chain of command. “In the deadly business of protecting our national security,” they wrote, “we cannot have a Sailor who disobeys a lawful order to receive a vaccine because they harbor a personal objection any more than we can have a Sailor who disobeys the technical manual for operating a nuclear reactor because he or she believes they know better. Our success, our national security, and the safety of our people depends on instinctive compliance with orders.” O’Connor’s injunction invites service members “to challenge a commander’s professional military judgment, whether it concerns training, assignment of duties, or other everyday orders essential to the Navy’s mission that they might find to be objectionable.”
The 5th Circuit shrugged off this testimony, substituting expert judgment with its own whims. Its decision opens the door to a significant escalation: The plaintiffs have asked O’Connor to extend his injunction to an entire class of Navy anti-vaxxers—exempting up to 4,000 service members from the mandate and seizing control over their deployment orders. If the Supreme Court does not put a stop to this subversion, O’Connor appears poised to bite off an exponentially bigger chunk of Biden’s authority.
While the world inches closer toward the possibility of nuclear war and Russia presses further into Ukraine, O’Connor, Jones, Duncan, and Engelhardt are sabotaging the Navy’s ability to fight. If this judicial assault on military readiness during a violent global conflict does not run afoul of the commander-in-chief’s constitutional powers, it is hard to imagine what would.
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So now we can have a so called judge tell the military who to deploy...
Well first off, he's not a so called judge. He is a judge, has the robe and the gavel and everything..... As for the rest of the article, so we have the 5th Circuit that is right leaning and these SEALS went court-shopping to find a "friendly" judge. Kind of like when liberal lawyers to shopping to the Ninth Circuit Court. Don't like it but that's how the system works.
With all of that said, I myself do not agree with a religious exemption to the Covid vaccine. They are taking a small part of the bible and using that as their shield. If people in this case are to take a lesson from the Bible I would much rather they take the lesson of the Good Samaritan and love their neighbor as they love themselves. I can understand and support a medical exemption but not the religious one.
Lastly, I don't remember being asked if I wanted any vaccines when I was in basic. We walked up to a door way and in single file walked thru, immediately on the other side of the door way were two corpsmen with the air gun injectors who gave us our various shots. I don't even remember them telling us what all the vaccines were for. For all I know, I've been vaccinated against Martian green pox...
What is it with people and semantics. I have had that several times from right leaning people. If I say so called judge it is because not all judges are right nor are they all bipartisan in their approach. This one seems to have an agenda.
Point being this 'judge' thinks he can dictate military policy and force them to send these people on deployment.
Ok, that wasn't clear to me. I read that as a "so-called" judge.
I agree that not all judges are right, not all are bipartisan and several of them seem to have an agenda and rule based on that agenda rather than the rule of law. Hopefully most of their "misconduct" is caught and overturned by a higher court but I cannot state that everything is fixed. We don't live in a perfect world after all.
While I don't agree with this ruling, is what he did any different than a 9th Circuit Court judge who overturns a presidential order? We have a long history of judges who used the bench to rule based on their agenda and I'm afraid I don't see it ending any time soon.
It seems to be getting worse Imo.
It gets even crazier Ender:
Navy Says Destroyer is 'Out of Commission' After Florida Judge Blocks Removal of Unvaccinated CO - USNI News
Navy Says Destroyer is ‘Out of Commission’ After Florida Judge Blocks Removal of Unvaccinated CO
The Slate link in the article states:
The Commander even refused to be tested after showing Covid symptoms.
Lunacy.
Unbelievable.
I read an article yesterday about trump people in organizations like the CIA.
They have their own chat program like twitter. Supposedly some have started using it as a hate fest place. Misogynistic, racist, hateful things constantly posted.
One man tried to blow the whistle on it and he was fired.
sounds like he's getting ready to retire, do a few laps around the alt-media track, and then run for elected office as a republican. after all, party over country is their mantra.
I read that article also. Instead of draining the swamp, Trump filled it.
Back in the old dinosaur days courts didn't decide who could disobey direct orders. Of course, nobody thought to refuse an order, either, especially one that said get a shot, get tested for HIV, and provide a DNA sample
The commanders have a right to be concerned
To bad, so sad, for Biden's fascist mandate.
Sorry, this isn't China no matter how badly Democrats want to make it.
Good to know you are all for a judge being able to dictate military policy.
Did you oppose Gillette v. United States ,
I don't know that one. So are you opposed to what the actual article is about or for it?
Please explain to the class how you think a drafted contentious objector case pertains to the article?
That case has NOTHING to do with the article in any way shape or form. Also, show me where in any religious text it tell you not to get a vaccine. I fucking hate that argument because there is no basis, even within a person's religion for it.
What the fuck are you talking about? So you support judges being in charge of military operations?
What a clusterfuck.
I hope these members refusing to get shots are somewhere guarding a motor pool until this gets sorted out. Then once it is they get demoted to E-1.
There is nothing to sort out. Refuse to get vaccinated, out you go.
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Harsh, I don't know. But fiscally foolish I would think at the least. How much money is spent to train a person to where they can pin on the Seal Trident? And as been said by several in a position to know, you cannot really put a price on what they do. So as the vaccine doesn't prevent one from catching the virus in the first place if other members of the team are all vaccinated then the risk to the team is lessened. And what's the risk of serious health concerns for someone as young and fit as a Seal? I thought the worst statistics were for us older fat people... but young and trim?
Like I said above, I do not agree with the idea of a religious exemption around this vaccine. But lets not toss out the baby with the bathwater.
Especially SEALS as they should know better.
At this point it's not about the shot, it's about failure to follow orders for the sake of identity politics.
Maybe I'm looking at this wrong but I try not to just look at one piece.
Yes, failure to follow orders is wrong and there should be punishment for that as per UCMJ.
Identity politics here is the same as a religious exemption, I'm against both as it's really the opinion of the crowd.
But is an automatic discharge for refusing the shot really the correct approach? I'm not so sure of that. The military spends a lot of money to train a Seal, and a lot more to keep that Seal up to date and ready to drop in at any moment. Let's maybe balance the medical risks involved as well.
I said they should be demoted, not discharged.
sorry, that was someone else in the thread who said 'out you go'
No...discharged. I didn't like getting vaccinated in BCT, especially the typhoid shot which I ended up getting typhoid anyway years later. I knew what I was getting into when I enlisted and never would have disobeyed orders to get vaccinated. If someone enlisted, they are subject to orders. That is how it works. Anti vaxer soldiers put their fellow soldier at risk and that is not fucking acceptable.
military elite, front of the life or death line of defense. I'll say it. if they can't follow orders, get the fuck out.
So which other vaccines should they be allowed to avoid Snuffy?
I presume that all of these SEALS acquiesced to initial intake vaccinations and have been continuing boosters and flu shots as required by the military. So it seems like they are fabricating a sudden 'religious epiphany' that precludes them from getting vaccines.
Funny thing though, they are under the UCMJ, not the Constitution. Which makes it all the more absurd that a judge would rule this way.
Agreed. I don't like that a judge has gotten in the middle of this, this should be handled under the UCMJ. But I also don't agree with automatic discharge. I think the punishment should be somewhere in between. But as I've said above I do not agree with a religious exemption on this. Perhaps a better punishment would be removal from the SEALS and reassigned to penguin census statistician on Thule (if we still have a base in Greenland).
If judges want to stick their noses into military business, then they should join the military and work with the JAG. If not, it is none of their business.
ROGER that!
THE USAF is still on Thule, great gym there.
The issue includes the fact that each country has it's own vaccine mandate for entry. Some have total restrictions, other a negative test and then quarantine. This means that unvaccinated troops are limited to where they can be deployed. How much are these SEALS worth if they cannot be deployed wherever they are needed at a moments notice?
What the fuck?! This has to be fake news, there is no way something this COMPLETELY RETARDED actually happened. This makes no sense on any level. This truly is some of the dumbest shit I have read in years.
To say this is a moronic decision is the understatement of the decade.