Jackson v. Mullin

In September 2022, three U.S. Coast Guard service members—Lieutenant Alaric Stone, Boatswain's Mate First Class Eric Jackson, and Lieutenant Mack Marcenelle—filed a class action in the Northern District of Texas on behalf of themselves and more than 1,000 fellow service members. Represented by Thomas More Society, they challenged the Coast Guard's blanket denial of religious accommodations to a 2021 service-wide vaccination mandate. Despite their exemplary service—Stone as the top graduate of the Coast Guard Academy class of 2020, Jackson with nearly two decades of decorated service, and Marcenelle the recipient of a Coast Guard Achievement Medal—the plaintiffs faced reprimands, denied promotions, and imminent discharge for their sincere religious beliefs. The lawsuit alleged violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment, and the Administrative Procedure Act. After the district court dismissed the case as moot, the Fifth Circuit reversed in a major decision in March 2025, setting the stage for the April 2026 settlement.

The settlement establishes the strongest religious liberty framework in any branch of the U.S. military. Commanders can no longer deny a religious accommodation request by citing generalized institutional concerns; they must now show, case by case, that granting the specific service member an exception would seriously harm a critical military interest with no less restrictive alternative—the standard federal religious liberty law has long required. The Coast Guard must also provide mandatory accommodation training across its leadership pipeline, publicly report approval and denial data, and expunge related reprimands from affected service members' records. Critically, all service members who sought religious accommodations in connection with the 2021 mandate are named as third-party beneficiaries with independent enforcement rights—meaning each can individually hold the Coast Guard to the terms of the settlement in court, without relying on the original plaintiffs or Thomas More Society to act on their behalf. Beyond the Coast Guard, the settlement provides a template other military branches can adopt, making meaningful religious liberty protection part of institutional practice rather than ad hoc discretion.