6 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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PURELY COMMENTARY

essay
A New U.S. Supreme Court Case 
Could Make Shabbat Observance Easier
T

he Supreme Court 
announced earlier this 
month that it will hear 
yet another blockbuster church-
state case, Groff 
v. DeJoy. At the 
core of the case 
lies a conundrum 
that has plagued 
federal law for 
nearly half a 
century: How far 
must employers 
go when providing religious 
accommodations?
Until now, the court’s inter-
pretation has required little of 
employers. Unsurprisingly, this 
position has long roiled, among 
other religious minorities, 
American Jews, who often find 
themselves seeking accom-
modation in the workplace 
for religious practices such as 

observance of Shabbat.
In taking the case, the 
Supreme Court has signaled its 
willingness to revisit its wide-
ly criticized interpretation of 
existing protections, providing 
optimism to religious employees 
hoping to navigate the compet-
ing demands of faith and work.
Groff v. DeJoy is the latest 
case seeking to have the court 
expand the protections afforded 
religious employees in the work-
place. It involves a U.S. Postal 
Service employee, Gerald Groff, 
who sought to have his Sunday 
observance of the Sabbath 
accommodated. The Postal 
Service ultimately refused to do 
so, arguing that doing so would 
have had a significant impact on 
its operations. A federal court 
of appeals found in favor of the 
Postal Service and the employee 
appealed to the Supreme Court.

So, under what circumstances 
should the Postal Service have 
to accommodate the Sabbath 
observances of its employee? 
Employers’ obligation to accom-
modate employees’ religious 
practice derives from Title VII 
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 
Because the original text of Title 
VII provided limited guidance 
in terms of what kind of pro-
tections it afforded employees 
from religious discrimination, 
Congress subsequently amend-
ed Title VII in order to make 
clear that employers were 
required to “reasonably accom-
modate” an employee’s “religious 
observance or practice” unless, 
and here is the kicker, providing 
an accommodation would pres-
ent an “undue hardship.
”
Like so many legal standards, 
“undue hardship” obscured 
more than illuminated. At what 

point can an employer claim 
that the hardship caused by a 
requested accommodation is 
“undue”? In a landmark 1977 
case, TWA v. Hardison, the 
Supreme Court provided a 
surprising — and dubious — 
answer to the question.
Like in Groff, Larry Hardison, 
the plaintiff and a member of 
the Worldwide Church of God, 
had requested to avoid work 
on his Sabbath — for him, on 
Saturday — in keeping with his 
religious commitments. But his 
employer claimed that they were 
unable to accommodate the 
request because doing so would 
have violated the seniority sys-
tem that the company had nego-
tiated with the representative 
union. The plaintiff, as a result, 
lost his job, and he sued TWA 
for failing to accommodate his 
religious practice.

Michael A. 
Helfand
Forward.com

