Religious headgear in the SANDF

A major serving in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) recently had the criminal case against her abruptly withdrawn by the government. Major Fatima Isaacs had refused to remove her headscarf under her military beret, leading to the initiation of her court-martial for "willful defiance and disobeying a lawful command," given that current South African army regulations do not provide for headgear accommodations.  Despite those regulations, apparently the cessation of the major's court-martial for insubordination was accompanied by some type of pronouncement -- by whom, it's unclear -- allowing her and "other Muslims members of SANDF to wear the headscarf under their berets." However, this nascent step toward reasonable religious accommodation is just that, only a short-term success, and per "the Legal Resource Centre, the victory in Major Isaacs' case was partial and the next step is to tackle SANDF's dress code policy in court."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army in 2017 issued a new religious accommodation policy explicitly allowing Soldiers to wear hijabs, turbans and beards based on approval by brigade commanders of individual requests based on "sincerely held religious beliefs." Hopefully someday soon the guarantee of religious freedom for U.S. service members, reasonably balanced with legitimate military needs, will not need to depend on service policy but rather be enshrined in law by a certain body exercising its Article I, Section 8, Clause 14 responsibilities.