Recent Religious Accommodations: Have We Gone Too Far Too Fast?

Since 2009, the Department of the Army has granted religious accommodations for six soldiers to allow relief from the Army's grooming policy for males to be clean-shaven. It is an unprecedented number given the Army had not granted any such exceptions since the 1980s. This book reviews the evolution of the need to wear and use uniforms to develop discipline, Army need for discipline, then uses a recent accommodation for a Jewish Orthodox rabbi allowing him a temporary accommodation to attend chaplain initial military training as an example to highlight potential policy challenges and ways to address the challenges of continued assignment specific temporary religious accommodations.