Supreme Court Issues Decision In Religious Freedom Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously decided in favor of a postal worker from Pennsylvania in a significant religious liberty case involving the appropriateness of employers’ accommodation of religious preferences in the workplace.

Christian mailman Gerald Groff of Pennsylvania requested the court rule on whether the U.S. Postal Service may make him deliver parcels from Amazon on Sundays, which he observes as the Sabbath. His lawyer, Aaron Streett, argued in April that the court needed to review a decision from 50 years ago that set a standard for figuring out when companies have to make allowances for their workers’ religious practices.

In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court rejected a ruling from 1977 that mandated that businesses must “reasonably accommodate” an employee’s religious practices as long as doing so does not put an “undue hardship” on the company.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious practices unless doing so would be an “undue hardship” for the business. A 1977 Supreme Court case, Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, said employers could deny religious accommodations to employees when they impose “more than a de minimis cost” on the business.

Streett said the court should get rid of the “de minimus” test because lower courts have used it wrongly to deny religious accommodations. Instead, he said, the court should use the plain language of Title VII, which would define “undue burden” the same way it is in other federal laws, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

F M

Related Posts

After My Son Remarried, My Granddaughter Whispered, ‘Grandma, New Mom Says Not to Tell Daddy About Some Things’ — And I Knew I Had to Find Out What She Meant.

We were sitting together on the couch during one of my usual afternoon visits when my five-year-old granddaughter, Vivian, leaned closer to me and whispered something that…

Donald Trump admits Melania loves someone more than him

At a press conference intended to highlight global diplomacy, Donald Trump unexpectedly offered reporters a glimpse into something more personal: his family life. The moment came during…

Doctors investigate DNA of 117-year-old woman to find one food that contributes to longevity

Maria Branyas Morera lived an extraordinarily long life, passing away last year at the age of 117 years and 168 days. Born in the United States in…

My Daughter Crocheted 80 Hats for Sick Children – Then My MIL Threw Them Away and Said, ‘She’s Not My Blood’

My daughter spent weeks crocheting hats for sick children, and the day my husband left for a business trip, everything she worked so hard for disappeared —…

I Married a Stranger in a Taxi to Hurt My Ex and Accidentally Found the Life I Was Never Looking For

I was thirty five, freshly betrayed, and standing in the ruins of a life I thought was settled. Two weeks before our wedding, I walked into my…

Man converted storage silo into a beautiful 2-bedroom home — see inside

A drive along Highway 50 toward Elmdale, then west, leads travelers into the quiet beauty of rural Kansas. Within about 90 minutes, the noise of everyday life…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *