The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in an important case that tests how far employers must go to accommodate the religious views of their employees.
Not only does federal law make it illegal to discriminate in employment based on religion, but it also requires that employers reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs of workers as long as the accommodation would not impose an “undue hardship on the employer’s business.” But what is an undue hardship? Congress didn’t elaborate, so the Supreme Court had to define the term.
The background to the case
Forty-six years ago, the court, by a lopsided margin, ruled that an employer need not accommodate a worker’s desire to avoid work on the Sabbath if that would mean operating short-handed or regularly paying premium wages to replacement workers. The court went on to say that employers should not have to bear more than what it called a “de minimis,” or trifling, cost. That “de minimis” language has sparked a lot of criticism over the years. But Congress has repeatedly rejected proposals to provide greater accommodations for religious observers, including those who object to working on the Sabbath.
Now, however, religious groups of every kind are pressing a new group of more conservative justices to overturn or modify the court’s earlier ruling.
At the center of the case is Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian.
“I believe in a literal keeping of the Lord’s Day,” Groff said. “It’s the entire day as a day of rest and … spending time with fellow believers. But most of all, just to honor God and keep the day special unto him,” he says.
Starting in 2012, Groff worked for…
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