The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a unanimous decision in a major religious liberty case, siding with a Pennsylvania postal worker who objected to Sunday deliveries on religious grounds. The ruling marks a significant update on the obligations of employers to accommodate workers’ religious practices.
Christian mailman Gerald Groff had asked the court to determine whether the U.S. Postal Service could require him to deliver Amazon packages on Sundays, which he observes as the Sabbath. His legal team argued that a 50-year-old precedent, Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977), set an overly lenient standard allowing employers to deny religious accommodations whenever they imposed more than a minimal cost on the business.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers must provide reasonable accommodations for employees’ religious practices unless doing so creates an “undue hardship.” The 1977 Hardison decision had interpreted undue hardship as any cost beyond a “de minimis” level, a standard Groff’s attorneys argued had been misapplied by lower courts.
Several religious groups, including minority faith communities, had weighed in on the case, stating that the Hardison rule forced devout workers into an impossible choice between observing their faith and keeping their jobs.
