Yarmulkes in the United States Air Force

The yarmulke, a Jewish religious symbol, became the subject of a major controversy within the United States Air Force, resulting in a trial that would reach the United States Supreme Court. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, S. Simcha Goldman (a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, an Orthodox Jew, and an ordained rabbi), wore a yarmulke on his head during his time spent working for the Air Force. When Goldman was ordered to remove the yarmulke in 1981, he refused, arguing that the forced removal would be a violation of his First Amendment rights. The disagreement between Goldman and the Air Force eventually made its way to the Supreme Court in the1986 case, Goldman v. Weinberger, where the court ruled in favor of the Air Force's policy, reflecting a similar result in a case from the Supreme Court of Canada in 1985, Canadian National Railway Co. v. Canada and Bhinder. The decision in Goldman v. Weinberger was met with harsh criticism as many people in the Jewish community and the nation alike believed it was a violation of Goldman's rights guaranteed in the constitution. An analysis of the decision in terms of Fredrik Barth's idea of boundary maintenance determines a possible loss or change of identity for Rabbi Goldman. Whether the yarmulke worn by Rabbi Goldman in the Air Force was a symbol for his identification with Judaism or a violation of a regulation in the Air Force, the initial decision from the Supreme Court reflected a violation of his First Amendment rights, resulting in an unfair removal of his religious identity.