The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a case that will allow it to revisit the test for “undue hardship” in denials of religious accommodation requests under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The High Court has agreed to review a ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals—Groff v. DeJoy—in which the appeals court rejected a religious accommodation requested by a postal worker. The Supreme Court will now consider whether to overturn its landmark 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, which held that requiring an employer “to bear more than a de minimis cost” to grant a religious accommodation request would be an undue hardship under Title VII. The mere acceptance of the case for review puts employers on notice that the Court is poised to adopt a revised test that will increase the burden for proving undue hardship.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.