The U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to change employment law in favor of religious workers, charges the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The court heard arguments today in Groff v. DeJoy, which involves a challenge by a rural postal carrier who is contending that he should have been permitted to take all Sundays off. During the lengthy arguments today, the court appeared to struggle with how to apply the law and how to provide guidance to employers.
“The Supreme Court appears ready to give preferential treatment to religious workers to the detriment of everyone else,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
The plaintiff is Gerald Groff, a former postal worker who accepted a position to work on an as-needed basis, necessarily tending to involve weekends, but who requested not to work on Sundays because it was his Sabbath. The U.S. Postal Service initially accommodated Groff’s request by scheduling co-workers to work Groff’s shifts on Sundays, but the much smaller station he chose to then transfer to could no longer accommodate him.
Lower courts have ruled in favor of the Postal Service because Groff’s chosen accommodation placed an undue hardship on it. FFRF filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court last month asking it to affirm the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ judgment.
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