Resource: Groff v. DeJoy: Supreme Court Clarifies Employment Protections for Religious Workers

When an employee’s sincere religious observances or practices conflict with workplace requirements, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) requires the employer to provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” In 1977, the Supreme Court appeared to indicate in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison that an accommodation creates an undue hardship when it imposes “more than a de minimis cost.” Some members of the Supreme Court, other federal judges, the executive branch, and commentators subsequently critiqued Hardison as wrongly interpreting Title VII’s text and inadequately protecting workers’ religious rights, particularly those of workers practicing minority faiths. In Groff v. DeJoy, a unanimous Court reevaluated its precedent and announced a new rule: to deny a religious accommodation, an employer must show that the burden of accommodation “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.”