Court Opinion

ID: 9430395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:29:39.008592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:24.342232
License: Public Domain

Justice Blackmun,
dissenting.
I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals, but for reasons somewhat different from those respectively enunciated by Justice Brennan and Justice O’Connor. I feel that the Air Force is justified in considering not only the costs of allowing Captain Goldman to cover his head indoors, but also the cumulative costs of accommodating constitutionally indistinguishable requests for religious exemptions. Because, however, the Government has failed to make any *525meaningful showing that either set of costs is significant, I dissent from the Court’s rejection of Goldman’s claim.
The Government concedes that Goldman wears his yarmulke out of sincere religious conviction.. For Goldman, as for many other Jews, “a yarmulke is an expression of respect for God . . . intended to keep the wearer aware of God’s presence.” App. 156 (petitioner’s deposition). If the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment means anything, it must mean that an individual’s desire to follow his or her faith is not simply another personal preference, to be accommodated by government when convenience allows. Indeed, this Court has read the Clause, I believe correctly, to require that “only those interests of the highest order and those not otherwise served can overbalance legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion.” Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U. S. 205, 215 (1972). In general, government “may justify an inroad on religious liberty [only] by showing that it is the least restrictive means of achieving some compelling state interest.” Thomas v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Security Div., 450 U. S. 707, 718 (1981); see also Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U. S. 398 (1963). The clear import of Sherbert, Yoder, and Thomas is that this showing must be made even when the inroad results from the “evenhanded” application of a facially neutral requirement. “Rules are rules” is not by itself a sufficient justification for infringing religious liberty.
Nor may free exercise rights be compromised simply because the military says they must be. To be sure, application of the First Amendment to members of the Armed Services must take into account “the different character of the military community and of the military mission.” Parker v. Levy, 417 U. S. 733, 758 (1974). As Justice Brennan and Justice O’Connor point out, however, military personnel do not forfeit their constitutional rights as a price of enlistment. Except as otherwise required by “interests of the highest order,” soldiers as well as civilians are entitled to follow the dictates of their faiths.
*526In my view, this case does not require us to determine the extent to which the ordinary test for inroads on religious freedom must be modified in the military context, because the Air Force has failed to produce even a minimally credible explanation for its refusal to allow Goldman to keep his head covered indoors. I agree with the Court that deference is due the considered judgment of military professionals that, as a general matter, standardized dress serves to promote discipline and esprit de corps. But Goldman’s modest supplement to the Air Force uniform clearly poses by itself no threat to the Nation’s military readiness. Indeed, the District Court specifically found that Goldman has worn a yarmulke on base for years without any adverse effect on his performance, any disruption of operations at the base, or any complaints from other personnel. Goldman v. Secretary of Defense, 29 EPD ¶ 32,753, pp. 25,540-25,541 (1982).
The Air Force argues that it has no way of distinguishing fairly between Goldman’s request for an exemption and the potential requests of others whose religious practices may conflict with the appearance code, perhaps in more conspicuous ways. In theory, this argument makes some sense. Like any rules prescribing a uniform, the Air Force dress code is by nature arbitrary; few of its requirements could be defended on purely functional grounds. Particularly for personnel such as Goldman who serve in noncombat roles, variations from the prescribed attire frequently will interfere with no military goals other than those served by uniformity itself. There thus may be no basis on which to distinguish some variations from others, aside from the degree to which they detract from the overall image of the service, a criterion that raises special constitutional problems when applied to religious practices. To allow noncombat personnel to wear yarmulkes but not turbans or dreadlocks because the latter seem more obtrusive — or, as Justice Brennan suggests, less “polished” and “professional,” ante, at 519-520 — would be to discriminate in favor of this country’s more established, *527mainstream religions, the practices of which are more familiar to the average observer. Not only would conventional faiths receive special treatment under such an approach; they would receive special treatment precisely because they are conventional. In general, I see no constitutional difficulty in distinguishing between religious practices based on how difficult it would be to accommodate them, but favoritism based on how unobtrusive a practice appears to the majority could create serious problems of equal protection and religious establishment, problems the Air Force clearly has a strong interest in avoiding by drawing an objective line at visibility.
The problem with this argument, it seems to me, is not doctrinal but empirical. The Air Force simply has not shown any reason to fear that a significant number of enlisted personnel and officers would request religious exemptions that could not be denied on neutral grounds such as safety, let alone that granting these requests would noticeably impair the overall image of the service. Cf. Thomas v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Security Div., 450 U. S., at 719; Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U. S., at 407. The Air Force contends that the potential for such disruption was demonstrated at trial through the introduction of an Army publication discussing the beliefs and practices of a variety of religious denominations, some of which have traditions or requirements involving attire. See Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 165-13-1, Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook Supplement for Chaplains (1980). But that publication provides no indication whatsoever as to how many soldiers belong to the denominations it describes, or as to how many are likely to seek religious exemptions from the dress code.
In these circumstances, deference seems unwarranted. Reasoned military judgments, of course, are entitled to respect, but the military has failed to show that this particular judgment with respect to Captain Goldman is a reasoned one. If, in the future, the Air Force is besieged with requests for *528religious exemptions from the dress code, and those requests cannot be distinguished on functional grounds from Goldman’s, the service may be able to argue credibly that circumstances warrant a flat rule against any visible religious apparel. That, however, would be a case different from the one at hand.