The US Marine Corps will allow Sikh recruits to keep beards and wear turbans, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
Sikh men keep their beards and wear turbans to express their outward commitment to their religious faith. The court said allowing them to do so would have no impact on their functions.
Federal appeals court judges for the District of Columbia were responding to whether three Sikh men could be exempted from the Marine Corps boot camp rule to shave their beards and cut their hair short.
All three men passed their enlistment tests last year but are filing lawsuits to use their articles of faith during basic training and combat.
“Today’s ruling is a huge victory for these Sikh recruits, who can now begin basic training without having to renounce their religious beliefs,” said Eric Baxter, who represented the plaintiffs.
The US Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard accommodate the religious requirements of Sikhism.
Marine leadership argued that beards would impede team building
The court opinion said Navy leadership argued that uniformity was critical to the “team mentality,” saying recruits must follow “the same set of regimented practices” to build cohesion.
The Marines argued that the recruits should be “stripped of their individuality” as part of a “psychological transformation” toward shared sacrifice, the court document said.
Court rejects argument, says other forms of expression largely allowed
The federal appeals court rejected the argument, saying the alleged interest was “disturbingly disconnected” from the corporation’s own leadership recruiting process.
The Marine Corps is part of the US Navy, and many of the officers train at the Naval Academy.
The Naval Academy, however, admits beards and “use of the same religious articles,” the court said in its opinion.
The judges also noted that the Marines exempted men with razor bumps, a skin condition, from shaving.
The Corps allows women to maintain hairstyles and largely allows tattoos, which the court described as “a quintessential expression of individual identity.”
Judge Patrica Millet wrote that if the need to develop unit cohesion during recruit training can accommodate some external markers of individuality, “then whatever lines are drawn cannot determine whether those indicia are prevalent in society or reflect the practice of faith of a minority”.
(This report was written in part with material from the AFP news agency)
