A Washington, D.C., district court judge barred the Biden administration from firing unvaccinated federal employees on Thursday, siding with plaintiffs who claimed that their employer’s refusal to allow a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate would result in irreparable harm.
District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting the firing of both civilian and active-duty military federal employees while their religious exemption pleas are pending.
“None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her order obtained by Fox News. She also specified that “active-duty military plaintiffs, whose religious exception requests have been denied, will not be disciplined or separated during the pendency of their appeals.”
The court also ordered the defendants in the Biden administration, including all the secretaries of the departments in the executive branch, to send a memo on Friday confirming that they will not discipline or terminate staff while the issue is still be adjudicated. According to the complaint, “plaintiffs, along with hundreds of thousands of other federal employees and active-duty service members will be terminated, discharged or separated on or before November 22, 2021.”
“The Biden administration has shown an unprecedented, cavalier attitude toward the rule of law and an utter ineptitude at basic constitutional contours,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Yoder told Fox News.
“This combination is dangerous to American liberty,” he added. “Thankfully, our Constitution protects and secures the right to remain free from religious persecution and coercion. With this order, we are one step closer to putting the Biden administration back in its place by limiting government to its enumerated powers. It’s time citizens and courts said no to tyranny. The Constitution does not need to be rewritten; it needs to be reread.”
