Supreme Court sides with Christian ex-mailman who sought to avoid Sunday shifts

The high court held that"Title VII requires an employer that denies a religious accommodation to show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business."The lawsuit between ex-USPS carrier Gerald Groff and his former employers marked a test of how far a business must go to accommodate the religious views of employees.

Attorneys for Groff sought the justices to overturn a precedent established in the 1977 case Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, when the Supreme Court ruled that an employer need not accommodate an employee's desire to avoid working on the Sabbath if that would mean operating shorthanded or requiring doling out premium wages to replace the workers. The justices at the time said an employer should not have to bear a so-called de minimis, or trifling burden.

Groff's dispute worked its way through lower courts as Congress has slow-walked any movement on proposals to provide greater accommodation for religious observers in the workplace. During oral arguments, Justice Department Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar sought to clarify the government's view that the 1977 case could be revised, stopping short of saying it should be completely overturned.Prelogar said a way of clarifying the standard is that lower courts that have read Hardison to mean"you never have to accommodate" a religious request should be informed that"is inconsistent with the current state of the law.

The case, Groff v. DeJoy, was argued in April. Groff maintained that his former managers initially arranged for other workers to deliver packages on Sundays until July 2018, when he began to face disciplinary actions if he did not come to work.

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