A decades-old US Supreme Court precedent making it easy for businesses to deny workers’ religious accommodation requests will be under the microscope now that the justices have a vehicle to reevaluate the standard.

Under the high court’s 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, employers only need to show that a requested accommodation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would impose a minimal, “undue” burden to be able to reject it.

But the justices agreed last week to revisit that legal test in a case involving a Christian letter carrier’s religious objection to delivering packages for Amazon.com Inc. on Sundays. A divided US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit panel relied on Hardison to affirm a lower court ruling in favor of the US Postal Service.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to review the standard, drawing rebuke from some justices who publicly advocated to overturn Hardison amid concerns by religious groups that it’s too broad and unfairly limits workers’ rights.

But the court’s conservative supermajority—combined with its greater tendency to credit allegations of religious liberty violations—suggests a more employee-friendly interpretation of religious accommodation requirements is on the way, legal observers said.

“I think religious public interest groups have seen a Supreme Court that they believe is...

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