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A federal appeals court reinstated a religious discrimination lawsuit challenging the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, ruling the case isn’t moot even though the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) rescinded the mandate in 2023.

Three former civilian DOD employees — Amy Arzamendi, Michael Orloff and Brooke Stadler — filed the lawsuit in July 2023, and asked the court to certify it as a class action suit.

The employees said they lived “under constant fear and duress, including the threat of discipline and termination” while waiting for the DOD to process their religious exemption requests, submitted in November 2021.

They also sought exemptions from the DOD’s testing, masking and distancing protocols during the pandemic.

In its 2-1 ruling last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals partially reversed a lower court’s April 2024 dismissal of the case, allowing the plaintiffs’ claims related to the vaccine mandate to proceed.

The 5th Circuit ruled the plaintiffs still had grounds to sue for damages even after the vaccine mandate was rescinded, but rejected their claim that the military violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by denying their requests for exemptions from its other pandemic-related policies.

California attorney Greg Glaser, who is not involved with the lawsuit, said the ruling “is a crucial victory for holding federal agencies accountable for their COVID-19 mandate overreach.” He also said the ruling firmly establishes that religious freedom protections are not suspended during a public health emergency.

“The 5th Circuit correctly held that the Biden administration cannot erase the harm inflicted on employees simply by rescinding an unconstitutional policy after the fact.

“By affirming that damages claims are not moot, this decision breathes life into countless similar cases that were wrongly dismissed and provides a clear path to justice for those who suffered religious discrimination.”

... Former President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14043, issued in September 2021, mandated COVID-19 vaccination for federal employees, including military personnel, who had until Nov. 22, 2021, to be “fully vaccinated.”

In their exemption requests to DOD, the plaintiffs cited the use of aborted fetal cells or fetal tissue in the COVID-19 vaccines and argued that their immune systems were created to be naturally robust enough to protect against infection.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the DOD slow-walked and stonewalled their requests, ignoring repeated inquiries about their status.

One response from the DOD said the military did not have “a timeline on when and how the review process will be.”