Federal judge rejects Oklahoma's bid to block National Guard vaccine mandate

[left-of-center2012]

Source: The Hill

An Oklahoma federal judge on Tuesday denied an attempt from the state to block the Department of Defense’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for National Guard members.

In a 29-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied a motion from Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) and Attorney General John O’Connor to preliminarily enjoin the mandate, saying the plaintiffs’ claims were without merit.

“The court is required to decide this case on the basis of federal law, not common sense. But, either way, the result would be the same,” Friot wrote.
“The claims asserted by the Governor and his co-plaintiffs are without merit.”

The deadline for Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel to get vaccinated was Dec. 2, and Army National Guard members still have until June 30 to comply. While Judge Friot rejected the state’s motion for a preliminary injunction, he still asked the defendants to provide a period for compliance with the mandate given the consequences of not complying.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/587560-federal-judge-rejects-oklahomas-bid-to-block-national-guard-vaccine-mandate

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Stitt and O’Connor sued the Pentagon earlier this month after Austin turned down the governor’s request to exempt the Oklahoma National Guard from the vaccine mandate, and threatened to withhold pay of Guardsmen who do not comply.

[COL Mustard]

1. Good. No matter what Stitt thinks,

JRB is the Commander in Chief of all the US Armed Forces. Yes, the governor is while they're on state duty, but in reality POTUS is the CINC. Try running the OKARNG without the Federal dollars, equipment and other assets. You'd last about 20 minutes.

[James48]

2. Only the federal government

Can set uniform health standards for its citizen soldiers. They set the standards, and the states are to fill the manning quotas. That’s how it works. States don’t get that pick. Nor standing to file suit.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Put this in your pipe and smoke it, trumpanzees. From the order:

First, adding a tenth FDA-approved vaccine to the list of nine that all service members are already required to take would hardly amount to “an enor- mous and transformative expansion [of the] regulatory authority” the Secretary of Defense already possesses. And, to say no more on this point, there is nothing “transformative” about a force protection measure first conceived and enforced by General George Washington when he required members of the Continental Army to be inoculated against smallpox.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Basically saying, cut the individual guards a little slack because their leadership...

…AKA The Governor, is an asshat.

Having denied the motion, the court cannot but note the potential conse- quences, for individual Guard members, of failure to comply with the vaccine man- date. Those consequences range (among other possibilities) from loss of periodic pay to involuntary separation from the Guard. Loss of one or two paychecks is one thing, serious though that may be in individual cases. What the court cannot ignore is the potentially devastating effect of involuntary separation (either as a result of direct action or as a result of continuing loss of pay), especially where, as appears to be the case here, the individual non-compliant Guard members did not have the ben- efit of well-informed leadership at the highest level of the Oklahoma Guard. The court strongly urges the defendants to give every consideration to providing a brief grace period–to facilitate prompt compliance with the vaccination mandate–before directly or indirectly taking action which would end the military careers of any Ok- lahoma Guard members.
Dated this 28th day

[TomSlick]

10. I think the Judge correct.

Given the irresponsible leadership of the OK National Guard, individual soldiers should be allowed to comply - quickly.

If the OK Adjutant General (state level head of the Guard) was worth a hoot-in-hell, there would be shot clinics at every Guard armory, center, etc.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. For this thread

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. From the opinion

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[turbinetree]

8. This governor is a disgrace to some of us in the Cherokee Nation.....

[Grins]

9. So sad. Not what I hoped for.

Just the evil in me, but Stitts pulled this crap back in November, almost forcing a Constitutional crisis over who commands the Guard.

The answer is the Gov.
Unless federalized by the President.

So what Biden should have done is federalize the entire Oklahoma Guard - and deployed them for 90-days - at Christmas - to, oh, to pick a place, the Saudi/Yemen border where they get to train in a real live fire exercises.

And not only would they get shot at, before they left Oklahoma every one of them would be vaccinated because they are being deployed overseas making the Governor’s political position moot, refusal becoming an Article 92 violation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, conviction being 2 years in Leavenworth and a dishonorable discharge.

Wouldn’t the voters love that, Governor? And thank yew!