Hey friends, Peggy Hall back with you from the healthyamerican.org. You might have seen these happy headlines and this came out a couple of months ago, just coming up on two months, and it is a press release from First Liberty and it states that Navy SEALs and personnel denied religious accommodation from the Cootie’s cocktail, reached settlement with the Navy. All right, you probably are applauding this as I am and I have been assisting so many individuals with their rights, learning about how to stand up against the government, and I definitely am applauding the fact that this is making headlines and that the Navy has to make some changes when it comes to dealing with the sailors and personnel that are standing up for their religious rights and objecting to these illegal, illogical, immoral, and unthinkable requirements that were inflicted upon them.

Now, I do have to reign on the parade a little bit. I know, I know, there I go again. I know, I know, I always have to dig deeper, don’t I? And I prepared a sub-stack for you on this and the title is, did the Navy SEAL settlement go far enough? I might be the only one not giving a standing ovation to the outcome. So let me take you back, give you a little bit of background. I’m going to mention exactly what this settlement did and what it didn’t and what I think should have been done differently.

But first of all, I do want to applaud First Liberty. They are taking these cases and I’m glad that they are because so many people have been reaching out to me for legal help. I’m not an attorney, although I’ve had many attorneys seek out my help and I’ve advised people on their legal rights and their legal education. So back in November 2021, 35 Navy personnel, many of them were Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit with First Liberty and they sued the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy. And they were suing them because they had their religious rights violated its clear discrimination.

So these non-poked SEALs in particular were being threatened by the Navy to have to pay back their years of training to become Navy SEALs. I mean, how do you even put a dollar amount on that? It was being estimated between one and $2 million. So not only were they going to be stripped of their command, they were going to be released from the Navy and they were going to be threatened with having to pay back one to $2 million in training fees. They were also told that because they were not human pin cushions, that they were unable to travel or to see their families during their time of leave.

So they were being discriminated all over the place. So there were so many discriminatory, punitive and retaliatory actions taken against these service members violating several laws, in particular, a federal law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And I’ve done several videos about that, educating people about how that is intended to protect your right to worship and believe that’s the most important thing because your faith is a part of your conscience, your soul, and your mind. It’s what you believe. So now the government can tell you what you can think, what you can believe.

That’s exactly what they were doing. And this is why I’ve been speaking out so strongly against it for all these years. So in March, fast forward a little bit, in March of 2022, this case was extended to all of the service members in the Navy that were affected by these discriminatory actions. So not just the 35 that brought forth the lawsuit, but everyone. And then just recently, in June of 2024, this case was settled, and that’s an important word. It was settled by the government to the tune of $1.5 million. Are you ready for this? And it goes to the attorneys.

Now, I’m sure they worked hard over these years. All right. I know I was involved in a lawsuit. I know how costly that can be to pay the attorneys, but only the attorneys got the money. I just want to make that clear in case it wasn’t clear in the headlines. Let’s break this down, shall we? And let’s give a round of applause to First Liberty for having this lawsuit settled along with their partner attorney firm called Hacker Stevens LLP. But I know, here I go again, raining on the parade. While the desired outcome, which was for the Navy to stop the discrimination, that is a part of the settlement.

It’s a settlement. It was not ruled on by a judge. There was no final ruling by a court setting case law and a precedent. It cannot be cited in, well, I suppose it can be, but it’s not a case that was ruled on. It was a settlement. That’s like going all the way up to the finish line and not crossing the finish line, in my opinion. I’m not on the case. There likely were valid reasons for the attorneys to do a settlement rather than have the case just be dismissed. Of course, the government wanted the case to be dismissed.

And then they came to a compromise, which resulted in the settlement. I just want everyone to understand the difference between a settlement and a ruling. This does not create a precedent. I’m going to tell you exactly what it does and what it is not doing. So here’s why I’m not giving it a standing ovation. I’m giving a round of applause, but not a standing ovation. So in addition to it just being a settlement and not a case that was ruled on with a legal precedent. And if there are any attorneys out there and I’m off base, please let me know.

This is my understanding of the law. Basically, the settlement was that the Navy, well, it was kind of a slap on the wrist. Here’s what the Navy doesn’t have to do. All right. The Navy did not apologize for its wrongdoing. You may say, oh, Peggy, that’s nothing. Who cares about an apology? I care about an apology. I want there to be a public apology from Lloyd Austin, who was sued and the secretary of the Navy to say and state that they were wrong and they apologized, that they are sorry for the harms that they inflicted upon these individuals.

I want them to publicly apologize. They were wrong and they need to apologize. Also, the Navy does not have to reinstate any of these separated sailors. Nothing happens that affects the past. There’s no apology for what they did wrong. There’s no reinstatement of these sailors and there is zero monetary award or even back pay given to these sailors. Zero. The $1.5 million goes to the attorneys. Now, I hope that they earned it. That’s where the money goes. The lawsuit sought no financial damages for those harmed by this discrimination, nor does the Navy have to pay them any back pay or reinstate them.

Now, the lawsuit never set out to do that. That wasn’t what the lawsuit was about. According to First Liberty, and I’m reading right from their website, I will have a link for you in my substack, peggyhall.substack.com. Here’s what they say. The settlement ensures that Navy service members who refused the Cootie shot for religious reasons will now have an opportunity to have their records corrected and their careers protected. Considering the next three promotion boards going through the Navy must not consider any adverse information related solely to the Cootie’s cocktails refusal, they’re calling it.

I don’t even like that word. No, they didn’t refuse anything. They stood up for their rights. So the service members who elected to leave after being mistreated by the Navy will also get their records corrected. But what about all those that became human pincushions because they were coerced and intimidated and threatened? How do you get their health back? You don’t. So the Navy agreed to post a statement affirming the Navy’s respect for religious service members. So that’s basically what happened. First Liberty goes on to say, this case has never been about achieving any type of monetary relief for the service members.

That’s on their website for any reason whatsoever. I’m reading their quote right here to include compensatory damages, which are economic damages, such as back pay and non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and punitive damages, meaning punishing the Navy and the Department of Defense from engaging in that discriminatory action. Again, that was not a part of the lawsuit. Inquiring minds want to know why. It’s a sincere question. I would have had all of that in the lawsuit. Now, maybe they have a strategy unbeknownst to me, or maybe I’m not clever enough to understand it, that they could just move the ball down the field that far and then other attorneys and law firms would pick up the slack and each of these service members could have their own lawsuit now.

Perhaps that’s what they’re thinking, but I would have pushed for more. So again, here’s what I’m applauding. This is what was done right. The Navy is required to correct the service members personnel records so that it says they are eligible for re-enlistment instead of separated for non-compliance, because imagine down the road to have that on your record, that’s to be applauded. The Navy is required to prominently post information regarding religious accommodation requests on its public website. That is something I would always request in any kind of mediation or case that you are doing, and they’re including the process, the timeframe, and they are affirming the rights of the service members for their religious accommodation.

I always support that and applaud that. The other thing that I always recommend happen, and I’m glad to see it here, is that the Navy is required to create a training program for all of its top officers, the commanders, so that they will understand how to handle these religious accommodation statements in the future. This is something that I really hit hard with a lot of my clients, is to turn the tables on the tyrants. When they’re saying to you that they want a statement from you about your religious belief and they don’t believe you, then you request a religious statement from every single person who is evaluating you.

How do you know that they’re not anti-whatever religion or whatever faith you have? By the way, you don’t have to belong to any particular religion. It’s a matter of faith. It’s a matter of belief. It’s a matter of your soul, and this is what I have been fighting for from day one. While all of those points are important, I would have sought the public apology from the top brass to all of the affected service members and their families, and I would have had the healthy American be the one who does the training for the Navy.

That would be fantastic, but I want you to think about the sailors who were affected. Put yourself in their place. Maybe you don’t have to. Maybe this happened to you, and think about it. They were intimidated, coerced, and threatened to be separated with a dishonorable for noncompliance. Think about how that would affect not only their future career in the military, especially since they would be separated, but going forward having to explain this to future employers. It’s likely that many, many, many of these sailors went along and became human pincushions at great expense to themselves and their family and their health.

How do you compensate that? With something on the website saying we are no longer going to discriminate against you, there needs to be punitive damages, monetary damages, and all of that back pay, and for those who want to be reinstated. This is truly abhorrent. This legal action, in my opinion, did not go far enough to punish these violators. I hope that the sailors will seek out their own private legal counsel to take these cases forward and then to be compensated for all of the emotional distress, the physical harms, and the monetary damages that they experienced simply because they stood up for their convictions.

What say you? Now, that deserves a round of applause for all of those who did stand up and put their faith first. Thank you everybody for being on board. I’ve got tons of videos about religious exemptions on this channel. You can learn about what to do if you are seeking a new job, if you are a nursing student, if you are a college student, if you are fighting the EEOC or going through mediation, I’ve got plenty of videos to help you. That is my conviction is to help you stand by your convictions because as you know, I am marching this all the way to heaven.

Thank you for being on board and I’ll see you back here, 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. That’s 5 p.m. Pacific. Always over at my subsac, which is peggyhall.subsac.com. See you soon, everybody. [tr:trw].

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