![]() (While it is likely that six justices sided with the Navy here, only four justices - the three dissenters plus Kavanaugh - chose to reveal how they voted. ![]() The most astonishing thing about the SEALs order is that at least three justices dissented. Order prevailed, but several justices wanted to upend things Though the Court’s order does not wipe out O’Connor’s decision in its entirety, it temporarily blocks that decision “insofar as it precludes the Navy from considering respondents’ vaccination status in making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions.”īut the astonishing thing about the SEALs order is that the Supreme Court needed to intervene in this case at all. That left the responsibility of restoring the military’s proper chain of command to the Supreme Court. And the conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused the Navy’s request to stay key parts of O’Connor’s order. Nevertheless, Judge Reed O’Connor, a notoriously partisan judge in Texas who is best known for a failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, ruled in favor of the service members who refused to follow a direct order. Morgan (1973), for example, the Court held that “the complex, subtle, and professional decisions as to the composition, training, equipping, and control of a military force are essentially professional military judgments,” and that “it is difficult to conceive of an area of governmental activity in which the courts have less competence.” But the fact that the Court had to weigh in on this at all - not to mention that three justices, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the majority - is a worrisome sign about America’s judiciary.Īs Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained in a brief opinion laying out why the lower court erred, this court “in effect inserted itself into the Navy’s chain of command, overriding military commanders’ professional military judgments.” Had the Court ruled the other way in SEALs, it would have effectively placed itself at the apex of the military’s chain of command, displacing Biden as commander-in-chief.īut as Kavanaugh correctly notes in his concurring opinion, there is a long line of Supreme Court precedents establishing that courts should be exceedingly reluctant to interfere with military affairs. The decision is undeniably a win for the balance of power between the executive branch and the judiciary that has prevailed for many decades. ![]() A group of Navy special operations personnel sought an exemption from the Pentagon’s requirement that all active duty service members get vaccinated against Covid-19, claiming that they should receive a religious exemption.Ī majority of the Court effectively ruled that, yes, in fact, troops do have to follow orders, including an order to take a vaccine. Navy SEALs 1-26 largely halted a lower court order that permitted certain sailors to defy a direct order. The Supreme Court on Friday evening decided, no, it was not going to needlessly insert itself in the military chain of command above President Joe Biden.
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