Defense Department Faces Revived Biden-Era Covid Policy Suit

Three US Defense Department employees who were denied religious exemptions to President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement can pursue damages, a federal appeals court said.

A request for damages from Amy Arzamendi, Michael C. Orloff and Brooke Stadler—each of whom proclaimed themselves to be Christians whose religion prohibited vaccine use— wasn’t mooted by the government’s eventual rescission of Biden’s executive order requiring federal employees receive a Covid-19 vaccine, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Wednesday in a decision that reversed the case’s dismissal and remanded it for reconsideration.

The mootness doctrine “prevents courts from ...