An Update on Our Coast Guard Lawsuit
Bazzrea v. Mayorkas
An update on our Coast Guard members and their situation:
In February of this year, the Judge on our Coast Guard Suit ordered that the parties provide a briefing on the mootness as we referenced in a previous update. The briefing was completed by all parties on March 14, 2023, and we are now awaiting a ruling by the Judge who will determine if the case will continue in the Southern District of Texas or be dismissed based on the arguments of the DOJ attorneys. While the briefing was being completed, an odd coincidence happened, the Coast Guard began to text, email, and call members that they had been wrongfully discharged for the covid vaccine mandate asking them to come back into service. Probably due to their severely low retention rate, which they try to fully pass off as not being related in any way to the discrimination against their members holding true to their religious beliefs.
They asked these members to come back into service without giving them back pay for the period of time they were wrongfully discharged, without removing their negative marks, without providing them uniforms (which they forced some of them to turn in during their discharge), without advancing them in rank even if they had earned a rank advancement prior to discharge, without a method to get to a new unit, without a method to reenlist, and without any information whatsoever on how this would work. They will not be given credit for any of the time they were wrongfully discharged and are being asked to simply come back for the needs of the service (odd that the service didn’t seem to need them when they deemed them not “worldwide deployable” for not receiving an experimental vaccine). In addition, they discharged all of these members with reenlistment codes that require waivers to return to service, and with discharge codes that tarnish their records and ability to obtain jobs in civilian life. They also have “accidentally” called members who were given reenlistment codes that will never allow them to return to service, and then had to call those members again and say “we weren’t supposed to call you.” These members (who either can’t reenlist or need a waiver), are not going to be issued new DD-214 (discharge records) if they choose not to return to service so they are effectively still being punished by the Coast Guard who wrongfully punished and discharged them already. In order to get any correction to their military records they must go through CG-133 (the office of military personnel) and request changes. But the kicker? CG-133 are the same individuals who issued the incorrect, tarnished, DD-214s to these members. IF CG-133 provides them with what they need, they can then go through the Board for Correction of Military Records and request that their records be corrected, but there is no guarantee.
Essentially, these members stood on their religious grounds, were severely punished for it, and are now being asked to return to the same service that uprooted their lives in order to save the service from their low retention rates. Is it really a mystery as to why the military is so depleted in 2023?
-Madeline Johnson, Paralegal, Silent Majority Foundation
Silent Majority Foundation is representing over 230 Coast Guard servicemembers who were discriminated against for standing for their religious freedoms. Our legal services for these servicemembers are paid for through donations from our supporters. We are thankful for the opportunity to stand with these fine men and women who protect and serve our country every day.
Semper Paratus.