on religion. The state settled the case for $225,000. Religious Expression for Military Service Members First Liberty filed a lawsuit against the Navy and the Department of Defense on behalf of 35 Navy SEALs in November 2021. The suit alleges that the service members had faced a range of military discipline for declining to take the COVID-19 vaccine due to their religious beliefs. In January 2022, a U.S. District Judge issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the Navy and the Department of Defense from punishing the service members and enforcing the vaccine mandate. In March 2022, the Supreme Court issued an order affirming the Biden administration's authority to make deployment decisions based on vaccination status. In May 2022, First Liberty Institute, alongside law firm Schaerr Jaffe LLP, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense and the Air Force on behalf of several U.S. Air Force service members. The suit alleges that the Department of Defense is violating the First Amendment by denying several service members a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In 2011, First Liberty filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs alleging that the department had censored prayers and the use of the words "God" or "Jesus". The department's response was that its regulations stated that there is no censorship but that the religious preferences of the families of the deceased are respected and that at times families have complained about volunteers and the Veterans of Foreign Wars had included religious references in services even though the families had requested that there be none. The department's response said, "Defendants believe that it should be the family's choice and decision what to have read in accordance with their faith tradition, if any, because it would be improper for others to impose their own religious preferences on a Veteran’s family, especially during this meaningful event". The case was settled in September 2012 after mediation by former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips. The Candy Cane Case The "Candy Cane Case" began in 2004, after a student in Plano, Texas, was prohibited by school officials from distributing candy canes with a religious story attached at his school's Christmas party. In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted two school principals immunity in the case against the Plano Independent School District. The Liberty Institute appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court,