Supreme Court ruling expands religious accommodation obligations

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled employers that deny a religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must show the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantially increased costs in the conduct of its particular business. While not overturning a 1977 decision, the Court rejected its de minimis standard for determining whether a requested religious accommodation was an undue hardship under Title VII.

Background

Gerald Groff, a postal worker, sued the USPS after he was fired for missing work on Sunday more than two dozen times between March 2017 and May 2018. He claimed he told USPS he couldn’t work on Sundays because he wanted to attend church. However, the post office was contractually obligated to deliver Amazon packages on Sunday and couldn’t always find other employees to trade shifts with him.

Groff’s supervisor suggested alternatives to missing work entirely, including working after church services or taking a full day off during the week to observe the Sabbath. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s grant of summary judgment (dismissal without a trial) to the post office, finding the religious accommodation Groff was seeking was more than a de minimis burden on the employer and therefore was an “undue hardship” under the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision Trans World Airlines Inc. v. Hardison.

Opinion