A group of 40 military chaplains has petitioned the Supreme Court for a preliminary injunction to provide interim relief to those who suffered irreparable harm by not following the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for religious reasons.

The chaplains are appealing a ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that the merits of their claims were moot. An amicus brief to the Supreme Court filed on the chaplains’ behalf by Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said the merits are not moot because mootness can only apply when a court cannot provide “any effectual relief whatever.”

“In this case, a court certainly could — and in our view must — instruct the DOD to provide restitution for the career damage and other harms suffered by the chaplain petitioners who, having been summarily denied a RAR were subsequently wrongfully punished,” the brief stated, referencing the religious accommodation request.

The Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, initiated in August 2021 by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is named in the chaplains’ complaint, led to the expulsion of more than 8,000 service members. Congress rescinded it in the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Section 533 of the fiscal year 2013 NDAA signed by Barack Obama protects the rights of members of the armed forces and chaplains of such members. Plus, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 prohibits the government from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.”

But the chaplains who used an RAR to not take the vaccine maintain their chances of promotion were harmed because their personnel files were tarnished with performance reports that downgraded them for using the religious exemption. The petition claims the DOD has been in “open rebellion” to Congress’ demand about rescinding the vaccine mandate.

“DOD removed disciplinary-related documents while making false official assertions all ‘adverse actions’ were removed from RAR requesters’ files,” the petition stated. “It has not removed the ‘adverse personnel actions’ such as bad fitness reports causing failures of promotion, missed schooling, or the consequences thereof.

“These Chaplains’ careers are dead men walking, direct consequences of filing RARs but hidden by DOD’s emphasis on ‘solely’ as the adverse actions’ cause.”

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar responded to the chaplains’ petition with a filing, obtained by Newsmax, Wednesday to the Supreme Court. She wrote because the vaccine mandate was rescinded, any controversy about that requirement “ceased to exist” when Austin complied with Congress’ decision.

She wrote Austin also took “steps to ensure that service members’ personnel records are corrected to remove adverse actions associated solely with refusing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccination requirement after the denial of a request for a religious, medical, or administrative exemption.”

But the chaplains’ petition maintains the DOD has not followed through on those corrective measures. The petition cites former Army Chaplain Capt. David Calger, who was discharged in December 2023, a year after the mandate was rescinded, “following his second non-selection to Major because the denial of his RAR and his vaccination status precluded his attending mandatory schooling before consideration for promotion.”

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