By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The White House released a statement celebrating President Biden’s success in appointing federal judges during his first year in office. In 2021, “40 circuit and district court judges were confirmed – the most since Ronald Reagan was president,” the press release noted, adding that another 35 nominees have been announced although not acted upon by the U.S. Senate. “Eighty percent of those confirmed judges are women, with 53 percent being people of color.” The announcement comes amid controversy about the claimed conservative makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court and former President Donald J. Trump’s remaking of the federal benches following the eight-year term of former President Barack Obama. When Obama took office, there was only one liberal bench among the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, but when he left there were nine Democratic majority appointed courts. He also appointed two judges to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump was successful in appointing three judges to the Supreme Court and also shifted three federal appeals courts from a Democrat majority of appointments, so that seven of 13 were conservative leaning. He also nearly flipped the liberal … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor WASHINGTON (LBM)—The United States Department of Defense has begun discharging military personnel after denying every vaccine religious exemption request to date. As of Dec. 29, 2021, there were 18,548 combined religious exemption requests among active-duty forces in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy. None had been approved, although some cases are pending. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps already has discharged 206 of those who made religious exemption requests and the Air Force has separated 27 airmen. Both the Army and Navy have said they will wait until January to begin proceedings against those who have been denied a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate. Now, a federal judge in Texas has issued a preliminary injunction against the vaccine mandate in a lawsuit brought by elite members of the U.S. Navy. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor, with the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth, ruled, Jan. 3, that the DoD has violated the sailors’ constitutional right to refuse the vaccine based on their religious beliefs. The plaintiffs are 26 enlisted or chief warrant Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) members, five enlisted special warfare combatant craft … [Read more...]