Governor Mark Gordon announced in a press release that he and four other Republican governors have signed a letter to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

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According to the letter, disciplinary directives to National Guard members serving in a state capacity "are beyond (the Secretary’s) constitutional and statutory authority."

In the letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the governors state that the Supreme Court has affirmed: "that the National Guard is under the command and control of the Governor of each state unless those members are called to active service under Title 10."

"Under Title 32 duty status, the Wyoming National Guard is under my command and control," Gordon said. "These directives are an overreach of the federal government’s authority."

The letter requests that Austin reconsider a directive that requires national guard members to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or they will not be able to participate in drills or training and won't get paid for that time.

That was part of a memo Austin sent out on Nov. 30 which detailed how the military would enforce their vaccine requirement that was instituted in August.

Oklahoma had requested their state's national guard be exempted from vaccine requirement on Nov. 2 and were denied on Nov. 29.

This led Oklahoma, along with 16 Oklahoma Air National Guard members, to sue the federal government on Dec. 2.

Also signing the letter were Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi and Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, and Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.

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Vaccinations for COVID-19 began being administered in the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The quick rollout came a little more than a year after the virus was first identified in November 2019. The impressive speed with which vaccines were developed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practical—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?

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