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| Capt. Simratpal Singh said he had been targeted because of his religious beliefs. .Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times |
A combat soldier who is Sikh sued the Defense Department on Monday, saying his beard and turban had made him the subject of religious discrimination because the Army was putting him through arduous helmet and gas mask testing that no other soldier goes through.
The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Washington by Capt. Simratpal Singh, a decorated West Point graduate and observant Sikh, said that, unlike other soldiers, he had been ordered to undergo three days of performance tests that “target him solely because of his religious beliefs.”
The Army has a ban on long hair and beards, which it says are a battlefield liability because helmets and gas masks must fit well to work. At the same time, the Army has permitted about 100,000 troops to maintain beards for medical reasons, and in recent years it allowed Special Forces troops in Afghanistan to grow beards.
“None of those people have had to undergo special tests,” said Jagmeet Singh, a spokesman for the Sikh Coalition, which filed the suit along with the religious freedom group the Becket Fund and the law firm McDermott Will & Emery. “We can only assume Captain Singh is being singled out because of his religion.”
Captain Singh was ordered late Friday to begin three days of tests to determine if his helmet would fit over his long hair and if his gas mask could seal to his face. No other soldiers go through helmet testing, and the standard gas mask test lasts only a few hours. He passed the standard gas mask test on Monday.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction forcing the Army to stop what the complaint called “extraordinary, targeted, repetitive testing.” Late Monday, after a hearing, the Army agreed to postpone Captain Sigh’s testing until the end of the week, to give the judge time to rule on the case. Military officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Captain Singh, 28, grew up in an observant Sikh family in Seattle and did not shave or cut his hair until he joined the Army in 2006. For 10 years he shaved and cut his hair as he rose through the ranks, and he was awarded the Bronze Star for exemplary service in Afghanistan. In 2015, he asked the Army to let him begin growing his hair and wearing the outward symbols of his faith.
The Army granted him a temporary accommodation in December pending a permanent decision. Many observers saw it as a crack in the strict uniform standards that have discouraged many religious Americans from serving in the military.
For generations the Defense Department has nixed almost any departure from standard uniform appearance. In the 1980s, the case of a Jewish officer seeking to wear a skullcap went all the way to the Supreme Court. Since then, while barriers for women and gay people in the military have fallen, religious accommodations for uniforms have remained rare. Only three Sikhs, two Muslims and a Jewish rabbi have been granted accommodations in the Army since 2009, and none served in combat roles.
Lawyers representing Captain Singh said they thought the testing was an effort by the Army to find an excuse to not allow religious turbans and beards.
“There is no other reason they would do this,” said Amandeep S. Sidhu, a lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery who is representing Captain Singh. “If they want to do a study on beards and gas masks and include a variety of soldiers, including Sikhs, by all means. But to do a test with only one soldier while his religious accommodation decision is pending, that’s unreasonable.”
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