Can the Post Office Force a Christian to Deliver on Sunday?

What doesn’t the Civil Rights Act of 1964 say? For one, that honoring the protections it establishes is optional if doing so merely proves to be a nuisance. Yet for several decades that’s been the operative interpretation in federal law when it comes to religion in the workplace—never mind the balancing the text actually requires. If you’re among the millions of Americans who observed holy days in recent weeks and needed your work hours adjusted to do so—but your boss refused—you had little legal recourse. Your faith commitment is subordinate to your employer’s business needs.

Gerald Groff is one in a long list of people who’ve met this fate over the past half-century. Mr. Groff is a devout Christian who believes he shouldn’t work on Sundays in observance of the Sabbath. He asked his employer, the U.S. Postal Service, to accommodate his request by assigning him only to other days of the week. After initially attempting to do so informally, USPS refused to provide a consistent accommodation and began disciplining Mr. Groff for missing Sunday assignments. Facing near-certain termination, he resigned in January 2019 and filed suit alleging a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Mr. Groff lost in both district court and at the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, which will re-examine how far employers must go in providing religious accommodations to workers.