On June 29, 2023, the United States Supreme Court issued a significant decision in Groff v. DeJoy , No. 22-174 (June 29, 2023), in which it “clarified” the religious accommodation standard under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Uprooting nearly half a century of precedent, the Court articulated that the standard for an employer’s showing of “undue hardship” is met only “when a burden [posed by an accommodation] is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” (Emphasis added). Until now, courts have widely regarded “undue hardship” to mean only “more than a de minimis cost,” which means this standard was much easier for employers to meet before Groff . By way of background, Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, including all aspects of belief, observance, and practice. Further, Title VII requires employers to accommodate an employee’s religious practices, unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” The “more than a de minimis cost” phrase was first used in the Court’s decision in TWA v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63 (1977). From there, lower courts latched onto the phrase and employers adopted it as the standard to determine […]
