Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
All nine U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed on Thursday to vacate a lower court ruling against Gerald Groff, a Christian postal worker forced to work on Sundays, which conflicted with his religious beliefs.
Federal law bars employers from discriminating against employees for practicing their faith, the court contended (PDF) in Groff v. DeJoy, unless the employer can show that there is no reasonable accommodation without an undue hardship.
Groff’s job generally didn’t require him to make Sunday deliveries. The U.S. Postal Service began delivering Amazon packages on Sundays. Groff transferred to a rural office that didn’t do Sunday deliveries, but that location began to do these deliveries as well. Groff continued to receive “progressive discipline” for refusing and eventually resigned.
Groff filed a lawsuit claiming violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The postal service could have accommodated him without undue hardship, he contended. The postal service claimed that such an accommodation would be a hardship. The district and appeals courts agreed with Groff’s former employer and ruled against him.
The appeals court based its decision on the Supreme Court case Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison (1977):
…which it construed to mean “that requiring an employer ‘to bear more than a de minimis cost’ to provide a religious accommodation is an undue hardship.”
The court in Groff stated that different religious groups say the “de minimis” standard has been used to deny even minor religious accommodations. The court said that this standard is not sufficient to establish “undue hardship” and remanded the case back to the lower court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion. After clarifying the Title VII undue-hardship standard, he wrote that “we think it appropriate to leave the context-specific application of that clarified standard to the lower courts in the first instance.”
Groff said he is grateful to the Supreme Court.
“I hope this decision allows others to be able to maintain their convictions without living in fear of losing their jobs because of what they believe.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
By Johan Burati, CC BY 3.0, link
