Suppose a guy got drafted into military service in the US today. His religion has no provisions againts military service, but absolutely, unconditionally forbids shaving one’s beard. Would the military provide some special exception for the guy or just reject him outright?
(I’m not entirely sure if there is such a religion. Sikhism perhaps?)
My wild conjecture is that because the beard would interfere with wearing a gas mask, he’d be unable to serve - or even finish the “mustard gas” segment of Basic that my brother the Marine always talks about.
Of course you make it difficult by saying its during a draft so I can’t answer. I will say that the military does try to accomadate religious beliefs but is not absolute. An orthodox Jew can not say “I’m not getting in a tank on Saturday”. A Christain may not be able to get Sunday off. If you are in the military you must meet standards no matter what. For one thing, if you have a beard you won’t be able to get a seal on your gas mask. On the other hand the military can’t force you to go against your deeply held religious beliefs. Its easy in a volenteer force, don’t like it don’t join. It gets a lot more complicated when its a draft and there are a lot of people trying to weasel out of service for bogus reasons.
You can get waivers for problem facial hair, or for religious reasons, but they are very rare. Even for those who can get a waiver, the hair must be kept very short. I only ever saw a handfull of military people with beards during my service.
A relevant article: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/8344503p-9274398c.html
From a constitutional point of view, not unless the Army lets you, which they probably won’t. The Supreme Court ruled that the “[First] Amendment does not require the military to accommodate such practices as wearing a yarmulke in the face of its view that they would detract from the uniformity sought by dress regulations” in Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503 (1986). This would probably apply to an unshaven beard a fortiori. So while the military may be willing to make exceptions to it’s policy (or not), the First Amendment wouldn’t guarantee your right to wear a beard in uniform.