A school’s history of religious exemptions undermines its claimed need for uniform enforcement.

Evidence

“The one compromise the school offered was to allow Yasmin to remain in the basement during the dance. It is hard to understand how remaining in the basement, out of sight, would further the school’s policy objectives [of fostering school spirit] any more than simply allowing Yasmin to participate only in activities prior to and after the dance.” Moreoever, the memo noted, the school “has a history of making exceptions to the rule that undermine its stated intent… . Jewish students were exempted from attending a school dance for religious reasons and just this spring Greek students were exempted from another Student Organization activity because it conflicted with Orthodox Easter… . There is no reason why making exceptions in those cases would not hinder the school’s objectives while an exception for Yasmin or Mariam would.” — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 433

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the free-exercise balancing tests in constitutional law doctrine and to any account of how pretextual enforcement gets exposed by inconsistent application.
• ADDENDUM: Ties to ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ in that both involve religious dress/conduct norms colliding with institutional rules that claim neutrality.