Supreme Court rules in favor of Christian postal worker disciplined for declining to work on Sundays

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Christian former mail carrier who sued the U.S. Postal Service for denying him religious accommodation in the workplace.

Gerald Groff sued his former employer for not accommodating his Christian belief to keep the Sabbath holy, which for some Christian means refraining from work on Sundays.

“Sunday’s a day where we get together and almost taste heaven,” Groff said according to The New York Times. “We come together as believers. We celebrate who we are together. We worship God. And so, to be asked to deliver Amazon parcels and give all that up, it’s just really kind of sad.”

In a unanimous decision Thursday, the justices overturned a lower court’s decision against Groff based on Title VII, which prohibits discrimination based on religion unless it causes undue hardship on the employer’s business.

In a previous case from 1977, Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, the Supreme Court ruled under Title VII 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, according to The Washington Examiner.

USPS argued that Groff’s refusal to work Sundays created a hardship for his coworkers and resulted in at least one coworker filing a grievance with the company.

According to his lawsuit, Groff started working at a Pennsylvania USPS in 2012, when the job didn’t require working on Sundays. That changed the following year, when his post office agreed to designate Sundays for Amazon deliveries. As a result, Groff changed to a different station in 2016, but that one eventually began implementing Sunday workdays, too.

Groff claims he started receiving “progressive discipline” in 2018 for refusing to work on Sundays, which led him to resign in January 2019 before filing a lawsuit for religious discrimination.

However, District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl ruled in favor of USPS. Groff appealed, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling in a 2-1 opinion, on the grounds that Groff’s actions “imposed on his coworkers, disrupted the workplace and workflow, and diminished employee morale.”

However, with the Supreme Court’s decision, the Third Circuit’s opinion is vacated and the lawsuit must proceed accordingly.

Groff hopes the new ruling will solidify protections for workers who ask for religious accommodations.

“I hope this decision allows others to be able to maintain their convictions without living in fear of losing their jobs because of what they believe,” Groff said according to the AP.