The ruling comes after 3 recruits fought to get immediate exemption to the Corps’ boot camp rule
New York: In a historic move, a federal appeals court has ruled that Sikhs recruits in the US Marine Corps can keep a beard and wear turbans, an IANS report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
Judges from the District of Columbia’s federal appeals court cited the Apresent Corps’ boot camp rule of cutting hair and shaving beards as a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The ruling came after three Sikh Marine Corps recruits — Aekash Singh, Jaskirat Singh and Milaap Singh Chahal — fought for an emergency appeal in District of Columbia’s federal court to get an immediate exemption to the Corps’ boot camp rule.
“Now, three Sikh recruits, who had previously been denied religious accommodations, can enter basic training,” Eric Baxter, senior counsel who represented the Sikh trio, tweeted.
Previously the Marine Corps had denied all these requests, due to which the trio for had remained ‘poolees’ or standbys ineligible to attend actual boot camp training.
It was their (the Marine Corps) contention that allowing Sikhs to keep beards would disrupt troop uniformity and appearance among the recruits, ultimately threatening national security.
The US Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard already accommodate the religious requirements of Sikhism.
Judge Millett stated the Sikh recruits “not only have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, it is difficult to imagine them losing”.
She noted the Marine Corps had never explained “why the Corps cannot apply the same or similar (religious) accommodations that the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and Coast Guard provide”, Baxter wrote in a series of tweets.
And Judge Millett said it was clear in light of “the exemptions already made for other Marine recruits’ beards, hair, and other individual physical indicia,” as well as the Corps’ “own history of flexible grooming and uniform requirements” since its creation in 1775.
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