6 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023
1942 - 2023
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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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