US Marines must allow Sikh recruits with beards, court rules – DW – 12

Three Sikh men sought an exemption from a Marines grooming rule requiring them to shave their beards, with the men arguing it was their expression of commitment to their religious faith. They won.

The US Marines Corps are to allow Sikh recruits to maintain their beards and wear turbans , a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Sikh men maintain their beards and wear their turbans to express their outward commitment to their religious faith. The court said allowing them to do so would have no impact on their duties.

Judges from the District of Columbia's federal appeals court were responding to whether three Sikh men could be exempted from the Marine Corps' boot camp rule of shaving beards and cutting hair.

The three men passed tests to enlist last year, but are fighting lawsuits to wear their articles of faith during basic training and combat.

"Today’s ruling is a major victory for these Sikh recruits, who can now begin basic training without having to forfeit their religious beliefs," Eric Baxter, who represented the plaintiffs, said.

The US Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard all accommodate the religious requirements of Sikhism.

Marine leadership argued beards would impede team building

The court opinion said the Marine leadership argued that uniformity was critical to "team mentality," saying recruits were required to follow “the same set of regimented practices" to build cohesion.

The Marines argued that recruits needed to be "stripped of their individuality" as part of a "psychological transformation" toward shared sacrifice, the court document read.

Court rejects argument, says other forms of expressions largely allowed

The federal appeals court rejected the argument, saying the claimed interest was "troublingly disconnected" from the Corp's own leadership recruitment process.

The Marine Corps is part of the US Navy, and many of the officers are trained at the Naval Academy.

The Naval Academy, however, accommodates beards and "wearing 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 permits women to maintain hairstyles and largely allows tattoos, which the court described as being "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 line is drawn cannot turn on whether those indicia are prevalent in society or instead reflect the faith practice of a minority."

This report was written in part with material from AFP news agency.