The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S. May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) on Wednesday announced that it had joined a Supreme Court amicus brief in the case of Gerald Groff v. Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General, a religious liberty case with potentially broad implications for the workplace rights of Jews and other religious minorities.

According to his petition to the Supreme Court, Gerald Groff is an Evangelical Christian who observes a Sunday Sabbath, during which he is not permitted to work according to his beliefs. An employee of the United States Post Office, Groff was required to work in Sundays after the USPS signed a contract with Amazon that included Sunday deliveries. After two years of ad hoc accommodations, Groff resigned from the Postal Service in 2019 and sued for discrimination.

AJC’s brief argues that the lower court decisions against Groff threaten not only Christians, but also those who observe a Saturday Sabbath, including Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists, as well as other religious groups seeking workplace accommodation of their faith. Under the existing standard, the lower courts ruled against Groff because the precedent in a 1977 case, Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, maintains that employers do not have to make a religious accommodation if it imposes “more than a de minimis cost” on the employer.

“For too long debates over the standard declared in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison ignored the chilling effect the decision has had on victims of religious discrimination,” AJC’s brief says. The decision “has allowed employers to escape liability and avoid any need to accommodate even the most modest needs of their religious employees, discouraging those employees from bringing claims” under Title VII, which Congress amended in 1972 to protect religious employees who observe the Sabbath on Saturday as well as other religious minorities.

The amicus brief was prepared by Asma T. Uddin, a professor, author, and lawyer specializing in religious liberty; Steven T. Collis and John Greil of the University of Texas School of Law Bech-Laughlin First Amendment Center and its Law and Religion Clinic; and the American Jewish Committee.

Other Jewish groups, including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs, and The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, have also filed amicus briefs in the case, as have Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Sikh, and Islamic groups.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on 18 April, 2023.