Sikh soldier sues DoD, A action soldier who is Sikh sued the Defense Department on Monday, adage his bristles and turban had fabricated him the accountable of religious bigotry because the Army was putting him through backbreaking helmet and gas affectation testing that no added soldier goes through.
The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Washington by Capt. Simratpal Singh, a busy West Point alum and advertent Sikh, said that, clashing added soldiers, he had been ordered to abide three canicule of achievement tests that “target him alone because of his religious beliefs.”
The Army has a ban on continued hair and beards, which it says are a battlefield accountability because helmets and gas masks accept to fit able-bodied to work. At the aforementioned time, the Army has acceptable about 100,000 troops to advance beards for medical reasons, and in contempo years it accustomed Appropriate Forces troops in Afghanistan to abound beards.
“None of those humans accept had to abide appropriate tests,” said Jagmeet Singh, a agent for the Sikh Coalition, which filed the clothing forth with the religious abandon accumulation the Becket Fund and the law close McDermott Will & Emery. “We can alone accept Captain Singh is getting singled out because of his religion.”
Captain Singh was ordered backward Friday to activate three canicule of tests to actuate if his helmet would fit over his continued hair and if his gas affectation could allowance to his face. No added soldiers go through helmet testing, and the accepted gas affectation analysis lasts alone a few hours. He anesthetized the accepted gas affectation analysis on Monday.
The accusation asks for an admonition banishment the Army to stop what the complaint alleged “extraordinary, targeted, repetitive testing.” Backward Monday, afterwards a hearing, the Army agreed to adjourn Captain Sigh’s testing until the end of the week, to accord the adjudicator time to aphorism on the case. Aggressive admiral did not acknowledge to requests for comment.
Captain Singh, 28, grew up in an advertent Sikh ancestors in Seattle and did not barber or cut his hair until he abutting the Army in 2006. For 10 years he baldheaded and cut his hair as he rose through the ranks, and he was awarded the Bronze Star for admirable account in Afghanistan. In 2015, he asked the Army to let him activate growing his hair and cutting the apparent symbols of his faith.
The Army accepted him a acting adaptation in December awaiting a abiding decision. Abounding assemblage saw it as a able in the austere compatible standards that accept beat abounding religious Americans from confined in the military.
For ancestors the Defense Department has nixed about any abandonment from accepted compatible appearance. In the 1980s, the case of a Jewish administrator gluttonous to abrasion a beanie went all the way to the Supreme Court. Back then, while barriers for women and gay humans in the aggressive accept fallen, religious apartment for uniforms accept remained rare. Alone three Sikhs, two Muslims and a Jewish clergyman accept been accepted apartment in the Army back 2009, and none served in action roles.
Lawyers apery Captain Singh said they anticipation the testing was an accomplishment by the Army to acquisition an alibi to not acquiesce religious turbans and beards.
“There is no added acumen they would do this,” said Amandeep S. Sidhu, a advocate at McDermott Will & Emery who is apery Captain Singh. “If they wish to do a abstraction on beards and gas masks and cover a array of soldiers, including Sikhs, by all means. But to do a analysis with alone one soldier while his religious adaptation adaptation is pending, that’s unreasonable.”
The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Washington by Capt. Simratpal Singh, a busy West Point alum and advertent Sikh, said that, clashing added soldiers, he had been ordered to abide three canicule of achievement tests that “target him alone because of his religious beliefs.”The Army has a ban on continued hair and beards, which it says are a battlefield accountability because helmets and gas masks accept to fit able-bodied to work. At the aforementioned time, the Army has acceptable about 100,000 troops to advance beards for medical reasons, and in contempo years it accustomed Appropriate Forces troops in Afghanistan to abound beards.
“None of those humans accept had to abide appropriate tests,” said Jagmeet Singh, a agent for the Sikh Coalition, which filed the clothing forth with the religious abandon accumulation the Becket Fund and the law close McDermott Will & Emery. “We can alone accept Captain Singh is getting singled out because of his religion.”
Captain Singh was ordered backward Friday to activate three canicule of tests to actuate if his helmet would fit over his continued hair and if his gas affectation could allowance to his face. No added soldiers go through helmet testing, and the accepted gas affectation analysis lasts alone a few hours. He anesthetized the accepted gas affectation analysis on Monday.
The accusation asks for an admonition banishment the Army to stop what the complaint alleged “extraordinary, targeted, repetitive testing.” Backward Monday, afterwards a hearing, the Army agreed to adjourn Captain Sigh’s testing until the end of the week, to accord the adjudicator time to aphorism on the case. Aggressive admiral did not acknowledge to requests for comment.
Captain Singh, 28, grew up in an advertent Sikh ancestors in Seattle and did not barber or cut his hair until he abutting the Army in 2006. For 10 years he baldheaded and cut his hair as he rose through the ranks, and he was awarded the Bronze Star for admirable account in Afghanistan. In 2015, he asked the Army to let him activate growing his hair and cutting the apparent symbols of his faith.
The Army accepted him a acting adaptation in December awaiting a abiding decision. Abounding assemblage saw it as a able in the austere compatible standards that accept beat abounding religious Americans from confined in the military.
For ancestors the Defense Department has nixed about any abandonment from accepted compatible appearance. In the 1980s, the case of a Jewish administrator gluttonous to abrasion a beanie went all the way to the Supreme Court. Back then, while barriers for women and gay humans in the aggressive accept fallen, religious apartment for uniforms accept remained rare. Alone three Sikhs, two Muslims and a Jewish clergyman accept been accepted apartment in the Army back 2009, and none served in action roles.
Lawyers apery Captain Singh said they anticipation the testing was an accomplishment by the Army to acquisition an alibi to not acquiesce religious turbans and beards.
“There is no added acumen they would do this,” said Amandeep S. Sidhu, a advocate at McDermott Will & Emery who is apery Captain Singh. “If they wish to do a abstraction on beards and gas masks and cover a array of soldiers, including Sikhs, by all means. But to do a analysis with alone one soldier while his religious adaptation adaptation is pending, that’s unreasonable.”
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