Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) sent a letter to the Adjutant General of the Texas National Guard on Tuesday, announcing his intention to sue the Biden administration for attempting to force Texas National Guard members to take a Covid vaccine.
In the document delivered to Major General Tracy R. Norris, Abbott strongly reminds all Texas National Guard personnel under his chain of command that they cannot punish unvaccinated members.
“Do not punish any guardsman for choosing not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” Abbott wrote.
As governor, Abbott is the commander-in-chief of the Texas National Guard.
“Although my order has been in effect for months now, President Biden has muddied the waters with a vaccine mandate from the U.S. Department of Defense,” he explained. “To clear up any confusion, this letter addresses all Texas guardsmen who are serving in a Title 32 status or a state active duty status.”
The Texas governor noted that “unless President Biden federalizes the Texas National Guard in accordance with Title 10 of the U.S. Code,” he is not their commander-in-chief under US Constitution or Texas’ state Constitution.
“As long as I am your commander-in-chief, I will not tolerate efforts to compel receipt of a COVID19 vaccine,” Abbott added.
According to Abbott, “President Biden still poses a career-ending threat to Texas’s unvaccinated guardsmen,” because his administration is threatening to cut off retirement benefits for unvaccinated guardsmen and barring them from participating in certain training activities.
“[The Biden administration] has also warned that unvaccinated guardsmen will be discharged from the Texas National Guard,” he wrote. “In short, the Biden DoD is threatening to take direct action against guardsmen who do not submit to a vaccine mandate that the State of Texas declines to enforce.”
The Texas commander-in-chief also told his state militia members he’ll fight to protect their freedoms from the federal government, and that’s why he’s “suing the Biden Administration over its latest unconstitutional vaccine mandate.”
On the second page of the letter, Abbott detailed how the federal courts will ultimately rule whether or not Biden violates the U.S. Constitution by undermining the Texas governor’s commander-in-chief power instead of federalizing the state’s guardsmen.
If Biden were to federalize the Texas National Guard, he could hypothetically mandate them to get a Covid vaccine.
“Win or lose, President Biden must be held accountable for his unconscionable willingness to hollow out the Texas National Guard,” Abbott concluded. “Please know that I am grateful for your service and will continue fighting on your behalf.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a notice regarding the lawsuit, stating, “Neither the President nor federal military officials can order the Governor of Texas and non-federalized National Guardsmen to comply with a vaccination mandate or to direct a particular disciplinary action for failure to comply.”
Last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) lost a similar case where he challenged the Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccination mandate for his state National Guard.
In the ruling, Judge Stephen P. Friot wrote, “Adding a tenth … vaccine to the list of nine that all service members are already required to take would hardly amount to ‘an enormous and transformative expansion [of the] regulatory authority’ the Secretary of Defense already possesses.”
On Monday, a federal judge in Texas blocked the Department of Defense from punishing 35 Navy members who refused to take the experimental vaccines.
“The Navy service members in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” the judge wrote. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
CLICK HERE to read Governor Abbott’s full lawsuit.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is trying to shut down gun stores in Texas.
source https://www.infowars.com/posts/texas-governor-abbott-suing-biden-admin-over-national-guard-vaccine-mandate
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