Chaplains and superior officers, like everyone else, have a constitutionally protected right to freely exercise their religion. But government-provided chaplains and military officers who work for a government academy aren't free to ignore the establishment clause, which prohibits the government's endorsement or advancement of religion. Permitting proselytizing by a superior officer amounts to a government endorsement of the officer's belief, even if the officer thinks it is "reasonably clear" that he's speaking on his own behalf.

"Reasonably clear from whose perspective, the superior's or the subordinate's?" asked [Michael] Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate. "When a senior member of your chain of command wants to speak to you 'reasonably' about religion, saying 'Get out of my face, sir!' is not an option."

The new rules "respect the rights of chaplains to adhere to the tenets of their religious faiths" without respecting the right of a captive audience -- cadets attending the academy -- to adhere to their own views without being subject to efforts by superior officers to convert them. It's disheartening that the Air Force Academy so quickly caved in to pressure from the religious right to undo its reforms.