The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases filed on behalf of Air Force personnel who sought back pay and affirmation of their religious First Amendment rights after they were kicked out of the service for refusing to comply with the Defense Department’s 2021 vaccine mandate.
The justices denied petitions Monday for Poffenbarger v. Meink and Doster v. Meink — cases that had challenged the vaccine mandate but were dismissed by lower courts as moot, given that the DoD allowed service members who refused the vaccine to begin returning in 2023, and in 2025, announced incentives such as back pay to bring them back in.
In the first case, Air Force Reserve First Lt. Michael Poffenbarger filed his lawsuit in 2022, arguing that the order violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. Poffenbarger had sought a religious exemption from the immunization and was denied, receiving a letter of reprimand and placed on the inactive list.
After a lower court dismissed his case as moot, given that the DoD had begun allowing service members to return to service, Poffenbarger appealed, seeking lost pay and retirement points. The appellate court affirmed the ruling and Poffenbarger petitioned the Supreme Court, where he was denied.
Second Lt. Hunter Doster filed suit with 17 other Air Force members, also in 2022, challenging the vaccine mandate for religious reasons. After the mandate was rescinded, they argued their case was still valid as they sought back pay and retirement points.
But in the Doster case, the lower court also noted that the plaintiffs did not request back pay in their original filing, with the appeals court affirming the ruling. The 18 plaintiffs then filed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied the case.
Roughly 17,000 service members refused the vaccine, and more than 8,400 were discharged for their decision, including 3,717 Marines, 2,041 Navy sailors, 1,841 Army soldiers and 834 Air Force and Space Force members.
From early 2023 through June 2025, 126 service members who had refused to receive the shot had returned to service.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27, 2025, to bring back troops booted from the service for refusing the vaccine complete with “full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation.”
The Defense Department and military services developed policies in response to the executive order, providing back pay for service members but also requiring them to commit to additional terms of service and deduct the wages they received while working as civilians, including Veterans Affairs disability compensation or other benefits.
Through 2022, more than 2 million troops received two doses of the vaccine, which was developed under Trump through a federal partnership between the Departments of Health and Human Services and Defense.
Between March 2020 and December 2022, the Pentagon recorded 740,942 cases of COVID-19 among troops, family members, DoD employees and contractors and 690 deaths, including 96 service members.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
