Trump Orders Military to Reinstate Members Booted for Refusing COVID Vaccines

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by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense:

The executive order came four days after a favorable ruling in a class action lawsuit filed by U.S. Coast Guard members who challenged the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. A legal expert told The Defender that ongoing lawsuits are important for ensuring that military members receive full back pay, as stipulated in the executive order.

President Donald Trump on late Monday signed an executive order to reinstate service members who were discharged under the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

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The order calls on the secretary of defense and the secretary of homeland security to take action to “enable those service members reinstated under this section to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation.”

The order also covers service members who “voluntarily” left the service rather than comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

However, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said court cases are still important for ensuring that all military members negatively affected by the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate receive the mandated backpay.

Mack Rosenberg explained:

“The executive order signed by President Trump offers a variety of means of redress to service members who refused the COVID-19 injections during the almost year-and-a-half that military mandates were in place and who either were discharged because of that refusal or who left the service because of the mandate.

“However, the order does not create a private remedy. The executive government cannot magically issue checks for back pay to these members overnight.”

The final clause of the executive order states that it is not “intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”

In other words, the executive order is a wonderful gesture — but it lacks the teeth to ensure that all members affected by the military’s vaccine mandate are justly compensated for the harms they suffered, she added.

That’s why Military BackPay’s ongoing lawsuits are vital, Mack Rosenberg said.

Military BackPay is a group of lawyers “representing former service members who were discharged for failing to comply with the now-rescinded DoD [U.S. Department of Defense] Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate,” according to its website.

Military BackPay is fighting three class action suits: one for active duty or reserves, another for National Guard members and a third for Coast Guard members.

“Those cases and the executive order complement one another,” Mack Rosenberg said. “The courts need to find that laws were violated, so there’s a legal basis for financial settlement.”

Military BackPay said in a statement:

“We’re grateful to President Trump for leading on the issue and we’re looking forward to working with his Administration to put this into effect for ALL of the thousands of servicemembers who were unlawfully discharged, dropped from orders, forced to retire, and otherwise harmed by the Biden Administration’s illegal mandate.

“This is why we filed our class action lawsuits on behalf of service members — to get to this point.”

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