ACLU: Why we can no longer support the federal ‘religious freedom’ law

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-should-amend-the-abused-religious-freedom-restoration-act/2015/06/25/ee6aaa46-19d8-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html



Demonstrators protest a religious freedom bill in Indiana in March. (Nate Chute/Reuters)

By Louise Melling June 25 at 8:37 PM

Louise Melling is the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Iknoor Singh, a student at Hofstra University, thought he had found his calling when he attended a campus meeting of the U.S. Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. But when he tried to sign up, he was told that he would have to shave his beard, cut his hair and remove his turban. When he asked for a religious accommodation as a Sikh, the Army refused, saying that these articles of faith would undermine unit cohesion and morale, readiness, health and safety, and discipline.

But the Army regularly allows beards because of skin sensitivity to shaving, lets Jewish men wear yarmulkes and lets women wear their hair long — all without damaging the Army’s asserted interests. So we at the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the nonprofit group United Sikhs, filed suit, charging the Army with violating Singh’s religious freedom. We filed our claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law initially passed to protect the exercise of religious belief, including by vulnerable religious minorities.

This month, a federal court ruled that Singh must be allowed the opportunity to serve with his hair, beard and turban intact because they pose no harm to the Army’s mission and no danger to others. This was a victory for religious freedom.

The RFRA was passed in 1993 after two Native Americans were fired from their jobs and denied unemployment benefits because they used peyote, an illegal drug, in their religious ceremonies. The Supreme Court rejected a claim they had brought under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, but Congress disagreed with the justices and enacted the RFRA with near-unanimous support.

more at link