A signed settlement agreement has been filed in the Middle District Court of Florida that requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to pay Liberty Counsel $1.8 million for attorney’s fees and costs after two years of litigation since the Biden administration issued the memoranda mandating that service members receive the COVID-19 shot.
As a result of Liberty Counsel’s class action lawsuits in Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin and Colonel Financial Management Officer, et al. v. Austin, and after Liberty Counsel obtained multiple restraining orders and injunctions, including a class-wide injunction, the DOD was forced to abandon its mandate and rescind the August 24, 2021 and November 30, 2021 memoranda on January 10, 2023. This settlement agreement comes after thousands of service members have been denied religious accommodation requests (RAR) from the unlawful federal COVID shot mandate. Some service members have been punished, demoted, or discharged as a result. The many restraining orders and the class-wide injunction Liberty Counsel won stopped the DOD’s unlawful shot mandate.
The DOD is now required to pay Liberty Counsel within 21 days.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The military COVID shot mandate is dead. Our heroic service members can no longer be forced to take this experimental jab that conflicts with their religious convictions. Through our daily work with service members in every branch, we have had the privilege of knowing some of the finest people who love God and love America. These heroes should not have been mistreated by our own government. At the same time, we have come to realize that many of the high-ranking members of leadership, the Pentagon, and the Biden administration need to be replaced. Collectively, they dishonored the brave men and women who defend our freedom. We stand ready to defend our defenders of freedom if any religious discrimination occurs in the future.”
