This rapid response webinar panel analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2023, involving a postal worker denied religious accommodation for his observance of Sunday as the Lord’s day, and his consequent refusal to participate in delivery of Amazon packages. In a unanimous decision, the high court held that Title VII's requirement that, in order to deny a religious accommodation, an employer must demonstrate that granting the request would impose an "undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business," should be interpreted to mean that "the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business." In so doing, the Court set aside lower courts' reading of its decision in TWA v. Hardison (1977), so as to mean that employers are not required to provide religious accommodations if doing so would result in more than a de minimis hardship. Employee advocates have been seeking to revisit this standard at least since the early 1990s. A secondary issue had to do with the extent to which impacts on coworkers or third parties may constitute an undue hardship “on the conduct of the employer's business,” as the statute provides. This webinar addresses how the Supreme Court decision impacts both employers and the millions of Americans who have beliefs or faith practices that may, at times, conflict with job duties.
July 18, 2023 RAPID RESPONSE
Supreme Court Goes Postal: A Rapid Response to Groff v. DeJoy
Panelists
- Amrith Kaur Aakre – Legal Director, The Sikh Coalition
- Wendy Musell – Founding Partner, Law Offices of Wendy Musell; Former President, California Employment Lawyers Association
- Dawn Reddy Solowey – Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
- Michael A. Helfand – Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion, Pepperdine Caruso Law
Moderator
- Richard T. Foltin – Fellow for Religious Freedom, Freedom Forum; Special Counsel, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; Co-Chair, Religious Freedom Committee, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice
Resources
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE STATES OF WEST VIRGINIA, LOUISIANA, AND 20 OTHER STATES IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER | Groff v. DeJoy
Brief of the Orthodox Union filed by the Pepperdine Religious Liberty Clinic | Groff v. DeJoy
Brief of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Canada et. al filed by the Yale Free Exercise Clinic | Groff v. DeJoy
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