The US Supreme Court agreed to consider requiring employers to do more to accommodate the needs of religious workers, accepting an appeal from a Pennsylvania postal carrier who says he was forced out of his job for refusing to work on Sundays.
(Bloomberg) — The US Supreme Court agreed to consider requiring employers to do more to accommodate the needs of religious workers, accepting an appeal from a Pennsylvania postal carrier who says he was forced out of his job for refusing to work on Sundays.
The appeal asks the high court to overturn a 1977 ruling that said public and private employers can’t be required under a federal job-discrimination law to bear more than a minimal cost.Â
The case will come before a court that has expanded faith-based rights in a variety of contexts in recent years.
Religious-rights advocates have been seeking for years to have the court reconsider the 1977 decision, Trans World Airlines Inc. v. Hardison. Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — had previously said the court should consider overruling the case, one short of the number required to grant review.
The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeal, saying the Postal Service acted properly under any legal standard. The worker, Gerald Groff, missed 24 scheduled Sunday shifts, and the government says other carriers were having to fill in for him. Groff resigned in 2019 after a series of disciplinary actions.
The case is Groff v. DeJoy, 22-174.
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