‘A victory for every American’: 5 reactions to Supreme Court’s Groff decision
The U.S. Supreme Court released a unanimous decision Thursday that vacated an earlier lower court ruling against a Christian postal worker who quit his job because he was forced to work Sundays, drawing celebratory reactions from parties on both sides.
The high court ruled in Greg Groff v. Louis DeJoy that the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals was mistaken to rule against the postal worker based on "undue hardship."
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion, concluding that "courts must apply the test in a manner that takes into account all relevant factors in the case at hand, including the particular accommodations at issue and their practical impact" on an employer.
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"What is most important is that 'undue hardship' in Title VII means what it says, and courts should resolve whether a hardship would be substantial in the context of an employer's business in the commonsense manner that it would use in applying any such test," Alito said.
"An employer who fails to provide an accommodation has a defense only if the hardship is 'undue,' and a hardship that is attributable to employee animosity to a particular religion, to religion in general, or to the very notion of accommodating religious practice cannot be considered 'undue.'"
Alito noted that "it would not be enough for an employer to conclude that forcing other employees to work overtime would constitute an undue hardship," adding that considering "other options, such as voluntary shift swapping, would also be necessary."
The following pages highlight five reactions to the Groff decision.
