A federal court in Ohio entered a nationwide preliminary injunction on July 28, 2022, prohibiting the United States Air Force from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate against religious objectors. Thomas More Society attorneys, who are litigating a similar case against the Air Force, were pleased with the ruling.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio entered the order banning the enforcement of the vaccine mandate in Doster v. Kendall. The order will remain in effect until a full trial is held and follows a temporary restraining order entered on July 14, 2022.

In a similar case, Air Force Officer v. Austin, filed in Georgia, Thomas More Society attorneys won the first preliminary injunction in the nation against the Air Force vaccine mandate on behalf of a single officer. The Thomas More Society is now also representing three additional Air Force service members. With these representative individuals, they are seeking class action certification for a nationwide injunction against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

“This is another big win for religious freedom,” said Stephen Crampton, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel and one of the attorneys representing the airmen in the Air Force Officer case in Georgia. “The vaccine mandates have been a disaster for the country, for the military, and especially for those with deeply held religious convictions,” Crampton added. “The Air Force’s insistence on forcing all of its members to take an experimental injection – one which has been proven again and again not to prevent infection – over the sincere objections of people of faith, is both unconscionable and unconstitutional.”

Crampton noted that the twice-vaccinated and double-boosted Commander in Chief is still recovering from COVID.

“This order is a godsend,” added Adam Hochschild, Thomas More Society Special Counsel, serving as lead counsel in Air Force Officer v. Austin. “The government has persisted in taking punitive action against those men and women of faith who cannot in good conscience take these experimental vaccines, and this order makes clear that such actions are unconstitutional.”

Hochschild added that: “The order also clarifies that it protects not only active-duty Airmen but also active reserve, reserve, national guard, Air Force Academy Cadets, the Air Force Reserve Command, and the Space Force.”

The government had argued that the federal court did not have jurisdiction to interfere with military decisions, but Judge Matthew McFarland responded to the contrary with the Ohio order.

“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” wrote McFarland, quoting Marbury v. Madison, a renowned court decision from 1803.

“It is essential to our republic that the courts uphold their constitutional duty to ensure other branches of the government do not violate the fundamental rights of our citizens as the Air Force has been doing here,” declared Crampton. “Judge McFarland is to be commended for this outstanding ruling.”

Read the Order issued July 28, 2022, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Western Division – Cincinnati in Hunter Doster, et al., v. Hon. Frank Kendall, et al. here.

Read about the Thomas More Society’s work to protect religious freedom for Air Force members here.