Military members are seeking backpay and restoration of benefits.
The U.S. military must make whole former military members who were kicked out for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a trio of federal lawsuits.
The former military members are seeking backpay, damages, and other compensation.
Nicholas Bassen, an Army sergeant who was discharged in 2022 for not getting a vaccine, wants compensation of at least $120,000.
The suits, filed in recent months, argue that when Congress compelled the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to rescind its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, lawmakers carefully chose their wording.
“Congress expressly chose the term ‘rescind’, rather than more customary language such as ‘repeal’, ‘amend’, or ‘clarify’, to direct the DoD and the courts that the rescission should be applied retroactively,” one states.
To support their argument, lawyers pointed to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Jan. 10 memorandum, in which the retired general rescinded the mandate and ordered military leaders to remove adverse actions pertaining to vaccine refusal from the records of members still serving.
Mr. Austin also said that former members could lodge petitions to request corrections to their records.
“Secretary Austin acknowledged the Congressional directive to apply the Rescission retroactively by, among other things, committing to correct all of the paperwork and adverse personnel actions resulting from non-compliance with the now voided mandate and orders issued pursuant to it,” one of the suits states.
“We think there’s some pretty strong precedent in in our favor, because when Congress repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ they use the word ‘repeal’. When they did this, they use the word ‘rescind’,” Dale Saran, one of the attorneys representing the former members, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Everybody should be made whole again,” Mr. Saran added later. “They should be right back in the position they were before.”
Mr. Saran estimated that, if the suits are successful, then billions of dollars would go to former members.
He noted that the money was already appropriated by Congress for pay and other compensation before the military discharged more than 8,000 personnel for refusing to receive a vaccine.
By Zachary Stieber
