The Pentagon has won a key legal test of the compulsory Covid-19 vaccination for the National Guard after a federal judge has denied the requested pause on the policy for National Guard troops in Oklahoma.
Arguing that the case initiated by the Oklahoma government and a group of soldiers’ lawsuit challenging the military’s vaccination requirements was “without merit,” US District Judge Stephen Friot refused on Tuesday to grant a temporary injunction against the mandate.
The judge has justified his decision arguing that the vax mandate aims to protect service members from the virus that has killed more Americans in less than two years than all of the wars the US has ever fought in.
The lawsuit originally filed at the beginning of the month on behalf of Governor Kevin Stitt, state Attorney General John O’Connor, and 16 anonymous National Guardsmen, followed the previous wrangling over the same mandate and after Pentagon refused Gov. Stitt’s exemption request.
The request launch followed the Brigadier General Thomas Mancino’s – the Oklahoma Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade Commander – statement that he would not penalize his troops for refusing the jab mandate.
The state government argued in its lawsuit that the mandate had been imposed without any congressional authorization and is therefore unconstitutional and has accused the White House – which had threatened to discharge unvaccinated troops without a formal exemption – of an attempt to disarm the State of Oklahoma from protecting itself, its territory, and its citizens.
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