Military and Vaccine Mandates: Let RFRA Work

It has been said that the only law that works is the law of unintended consequences. The Navy is certain to reinforce that impression if it gets its way in the emergency proceeding it filed last week at the U.S. Supreme Court. For decades, government lawyers have claimed that respecting religious liberty in the military will cause the sky to fall. In their most recent filing, they're back at it, asking for a blanket exemption from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on national-security grounds. But the truth is that courts have extensive experience applying RFRA to the military in ways that have permitted hundreds of religious minorities and other believers to serve their country without having to abandon their religious beliefs -- all without compromising the military's weighty national-security interests. That is just what Congress intended. Rather than jumping in to change the standard set by Congress -- which could upend decades of progress in protecting service members' religious freedom -- the Court should follow the proven track and let RFRA balancing do its work, as is already happening in the district court.