Within the case of the Sikhs, the Marine Corps has dug in over extra than simply sensible issues. It additionally says beards and turbans are a possible menace to a extra summary idea of unity.
The 13 weeks of boot camp are the crucible the place peculiar residents are changed into Marines, taking away practically all particular person id — telephones, private garments, hair kinds and even the phrase “I”: Drill instructors drive recruits to discuss with themselves solely as “this recruit.”
“This transformative interval units the inspiration for additional service by breaking down individuality and coaching recruits to consider their staff first,” the Marine Corps wrote in February when it denied an lodging for one of many potential Sikh recruits, Aekash Singh. “Uniformity is a key part of this course of. Consequently, limiting exceptions throughout this transformative course of constitutes the least restrictive means to additional the federal government’s compelling pursuits.”
Mr. Singh and two different potential recruits, Jaskirat Singh and Milaap Singh Chahal, declined to be interviewed. In a press release, they mentioned: “We stay prepared to satisfy the excessive psychological and bodily requirements of the Marine Corps as a result of we need to serve our nation alongside the perfect. We can’t, nonetheless, quit our proper to our spiritual religion whereas doing so.”
Within the swimsuit filed on Monday, their attorneys argued that the Marine Corps routinely permits different recruits into boot camp who don’t match homogeneous look requirements. Girls are allowed to maintain their lengthy hair throughout coaching, and the Corps just lately loosened restrictions on tattoos, permitting recruits to have ink protecting every thing however their arms, head and neck.
The Corps mentioned the change within the tattoo coverage was meant “to steadiness the person needs of Marines with the necessity to preserve the disciplined look anticipated of our occupation.” The Sikhs say of their lawsuit that “it’s perverse to say that respecting ‘the person needs of Marines’ to have full-body tattoos is per mission accomplishment, however that respecting Marines’ needs to be devoted to God is in some way dangerous.”
Giselle Klapper, a civil rights legal professional with an advocacy group, the Sikh Coalition, who is without doubt one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, mentioned that the coalition tried for greater than a yr to barter an answer with Marine Corps leaders, however that the Corps had been unreceptive.
