Religious Accommodations Were A Joke
Updated: 6 days ago
A 98% denial rate is not a process. It is a decision made in advance.
July 26, 2026
Children’s Health Defense amended its complaint against Secretary Hegseth to add three active-duty Air Force plaintiffs, alleging the Department denied religious accommodation requests at a rate of roughly 98 percent.
Attention F4F friends, supporters, and members. We wrote this one up on 26 July 2026 because it is the same fight, in a different building.
Children’s Health Defense amended its complaint against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — Children’s Health Defense et al. v. Hegseth, No. 1:25-cv-04363-ACR, originally filed 16 December 2025 — to add three active-duty Air Force plaintiffs: Lt. Col. Benjamin Leiby, SSgt Brittany Puckett, and Maj. Brennan Schilperoort. The claims run under the APA, RFRA, and the Free Exercise Clause.
The number at the center of it is roughly 98 percent. That is the share of religious accommodation requests the Department denied.
Anyone who filed one already knows what that felt like from the inside: a form, a chaplain interview, a boilerplate denial that recited your own words back at you and then declined to engage with any of them, and an appeal decided by the same office that wrote the denial. Individualized assessment was the promise. Ninety-eight percent is what individualized assessment looks like when the answer was written first.
Why does a military case belong on this page? Because the machinery is identical. Different uniform, same template.
We have been saying the accommodation process was theater since 2021. Someone finally put a number on the curtain.
SOURCE LINKS
● Our writeup, 26 July 2026 — https://fedsforfreedom.substack.com/p/religious-accommodations-were-a-joke
● Children’s Health Defense — https://childrenshealthdefense.org/
About Feds For Freedom
Feds For Freedom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to preventing government overreach, safeguarding bodily autonomy, and holding bad actors in government accountable. Originally called Feds For Medical Freedom, Feds For Freedom has led legal challenges to defend the constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors since its founding in 2021.
Learn more at www.fedsforfreedom.org
Contact:
Stephanie Weidle
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