Court Opinion

ID: 9472402
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:59:20.710621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:55.107342
License: Public Domain

GINSBURG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting
from denial of suggestion to hear case en banc, in which Judge Scalia concurs:
The plaintiff in this case, S. Simcha Goldman, has long served his country as an Air Force officer with honor and devotion. A military commander has now declared intolerable the yarmulke Dr. Goldman has worn without incident throughout his several years of military service. At the least, the-declaration suggests “callous indifference” to Dr. Goldman’s religious faith, and it runs counter to “the best of our traditions” to “accommodate[ ] the public service to the[ ] spiritual needs [of our people].” Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 314, 72 S.Ct. 679, 684, 96 L.Ed. 954 (1952); cf Braunfeld. v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 616, 81 S.Ct. 1144, 1152, 6 L.Ed.2d 563 (1961) (Stewart, J., dissenting) (commenting on state law exposing Orthodox Jew to “cruel choice” between “his religious faith and his economic survival”). For the reasons indicated in Judge Starr’s eloquent statement, I believe the court en banc should measure the command suddenly and lately championed by the military against the restraint imposed even on an armed forces commander by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.