10 U.S.C. § 774
Section 774 · Religious apparel: wearing while in uniform
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Cutter et al. v. Wilkinson Director Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (2005)
Most recently applied in Jaskirat Singh v. David Berger (December 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) General Rule.—Except as provided under subsection (b), a member of the armed forces may wear an item of religious apparel while wearing the uniform of the member's armed force.
(b) Exceptions.—The Secretary concerned may prohibit the wearing of an item of religious apparel—
(1) in circumstances with respect to which the Secretary determines that the wearing of the item would interfere with the performance of the member's military duties; or
(2) if the Secretary determines, under regulations under subsection (c), that the item of apparel is not neat and conservative.
(c) Regulations.—The Secretary concerned shall prescribe regulations concerning the wearing of religious apparel by members of the armed forces under the Secretary's jurisdiction while the members are wearing the uniform. Such regulations shall be consistent with subsections (a) and (b).
(d) Religious Apparel Defined.—In this section, the term “religious apparel” means apparel the wearing of which is part of the observance of the religious faith practiced by the member.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
A prior section 774 was renumbered section 776 of this title.
Regulations
Section 508(c) of Pub. L. 100–180 provided that: “The Secretary concerned shall prescribe the regulations required by section 774(c) of title 10, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), not later than the end of the 120-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act [Dec. 4, 1987].”