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- cross-posted to:
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The Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for employees to seek religious accommodations in a case involving a lawsuit brought by an evangelical Christian mail carrier who asked not to work on Sundays.
The case involved a claim brought by a Pennsylvania man, Gerald Groff, who says the U.S. Postal Service could have granted his request that he be spared Sunday shifts based on his religious belief that it is a day of worship and rest.
His case will now return to lower courts for further litigation.
Good, if you sincerely hold a religious belief about not working on a specific day why should your workplace be able to ask you otherwise.
Agreed - as long as what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If I tell my boss that I sincerely, religiously believe that unless I have off every Wednesday, my energy will attract a meteor which will certainly destroy humanity, that has to be taken with equal reverence and accommodation as someone who believes that a sky fairy created the universe in a week and told him to rest.
Nobody gets to determine who’s beliefs are more or less credible or sincerely held, so they all must be treated equally - and protected by law - with regards to workplace accommodations, or not at all.
In my opinion.
What if you convert to a different religion while being employed at the same job? What if you do it repeatedly? “Sorry, boss. I’m Jewish now. You can’t schedule me on Saturdays anymore.” Two weeks later. “Sorry, boss. I’m a Christian again. Can’t work Sundays.” How do you prove the employee isn’t sincere? How do you prove anyone isn’t sincere about their religious beliefs?
Heres how it would work if you were claiming to be catholic, they’d go to whichever church you say you go to and ask the pastor there if you attend service ever, and likely check cameras depending on severity needed for this, if you go there for service that’s good enough proof.
“Sorry, I’m not the kind of Jew who goes to temple. Prove I don’t sincerely hold the belief that I don’t have to work on Saturday anymore.”
Heres how it would work if you were catholic, they’d go to whichever church you say you go to and ask the pastor there if you attend service ever, and likely check cameras depending on severity needed for this, if you go there for service that’s good enough proof.
In practice I have heard if it gets to the court level they might demand evidence that you have converted.