Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Sues DOD Over ‘Sham’ Religious Exemption Policies

The U.S. military is illegally denying service members’ requests for religious exemptions from required vaccines, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) against the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

The lawsuit accuses the DOD of enforcing a “two-part strategy” to deny virtually all religious accommodation requests from service members and recruits.

According to the complaint, the military’s policy for granting religious exemptions to new recruits is “ambiguous.” For acting service members, the process for obtaining a religious exemption is a “sham” and “largely theater.”

These policies violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment’s clause protecting freedom of religion, and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses, the complaint alleges.

“Our military members literally put their lives on the line to preserve our freedoms, one of the most essential of which is free exercise of religion,” said CHD General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg. “Sadly, those military members who serve to protect those rights cannot themselves exercise the right of religious freedom when it comes to military vaccination requirements.”

CHD also alleges that the DOD’s vaccination schedule is aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended childhood immunization schedule — and that neither the DOD nor the CDC have conducted long-term safety studies on the cumulative effect of administering all of the vaccines on that schedule.

CHD, the sole plaintiff, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on behalf of the nonprofit and its Military Chapter. The suit names Pete Hegseth, in his official capacity as U.S. secretary of defense, as the sole defendant…