The Save America’s Military Coalition Senate Video Telethon 2.0:
Supporting Pete Hegseth, Opposing Cultural Marxism in the ServicesThursday, Jan 2, 2025
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL VIDEO
Rob Muise
Co-founder, the American Freedom Law Center
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:14:08] Rob Muise: Thank you. You know, we were we have been and still are intimately involved in challenging this this Covid vaccine mandate. You know, the service members we represented throughout all this. And right now we still have a case on a that’s it’s working its way through the courts. On behalf of four Navy Seals, the service members recognize what this Covid mandate was, and it was to see who would bend [00:14:30] their knee to, you know, to these types of these types of policies. And we represent for Navy Seals who certainly would not do so. And when you think about this, this Covid vaccine mandate, right. Navy Seals are probably the most fit men in all the world. And in fact, even the four seals we represented had Covid. So they had natural immunity. But yet still the government was forcing them and they sidelined them. These men were taking off the front lines. Some of them are in Seal team six. We [00:15:00] had to file a motion for them to appear pseudonymously, meaning not by their real names, but just by Navy Seal one two, three, four because of the important work they do and we, the me, the American military, the Department of Defense sidelined these warriors who were who were, you know, trained, trained to perform the missions of the for the United States of America. They sidelined these men because they wouldn’t take a Covid vaccine and they had a military exemption [00:15:30] requests. And there’s a federal law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that prohibits the government from enforcing somebody to violate their religious beliefs unless the government has a compelling interest to do so.
[00:15:43] Rob Muise: And so we actually filed it. And it’s kind of interesting how this is working itself out. We filed a an injunction against the government so they wouldn’t be able to get back into service and not be sidelined because of this vaccine. It was denied by our district court judge in Washington, D.C., who claimed that, well, this is really for the military’s judgment, not for the [00:16:00] judgment of the court. But yet this same judge in 2017 struck down a restriction that the Trump administration put in place on having transgendered in the military. So, so much for military judgment when it doesn’t fit that ideology of that particular of that particular judge. Should we appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit? And during the pendency of that appeal, the government rescinded that mandate as part of an appropriations bill in December of 2022, which, if anything, that goes to show you the government didn’t [00:16:30] have a compelling interest in having to force this mandate on them. So when this came back down to the district court, she immediately said, oh, this case is moot now because the mandate has been rescinded. But one of the things that we did in our lawsuit, and this is an important under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that federal law, the Supreme Court had said in 2020 that you can bring damage claims for this. So we brought damage claims against Admiral Gilday, the chief naval operations officer, the CNO, who was the one that was actually responsible for either granting or denying these religious exemptions. [00:17:00]
[00:17:00] Rob Muise: And, of course, he denied all of them, particularly those with the Navy Seals. And so this case is proceeding. And the point here is that, you know, we need to hold these military commanders who are making these types of decisions that are undermining the vitality of our military. We need to hold them responsible. And we’re seeking to do that in this lawsuit. You know, they wanted this to go away. Oh, we rescind the mandate and let’s just move on. But no, we’re going forward and we’re going after damages against Admiral Gilday and his official [00:17:30] capacity. And I know from all that I’ve seen and heard and read about Pete Hegseth, is that he is going to hold people accountable. And that’s the one thing with the Trump administration that I really appreciate is that he does hold people accountable. Right. Where was the accountability after that Afghanistan withdrawal debacle? Right. And I know that this new administration coming in and under the leadership of Pete Hegseth, they will hold people responsible. And I know the American Freedom Law Center, with our litigation, the work we do. We’re [00:18:00] also ensure that our military commanders and all our government officials will be held accountable. If I’m so delighted with the with this new administration, with the selection of Pete Hegseth, because I think that’s something that he will do on day one, is hold people accountable for their actions.