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The Supreme Court recently ruled that the burden an employer must meet in denying a requested religious accommodation is “substantial” and not merely “de minimis.” Employers will now have a harder time denying religious accommodations.

How much greater will the burden on employers be? That is yet to be seen, as the Supreme Court sent the case back down to the lower court for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. Also, we expect new guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in light of the Court’s ruling.

On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Groff v. DeJoy, Postmaster General, unanimously clarifying Title VII’s religious accommodation requirements. The Court ruled that an employer that denies a religious accommodation must show that the burden of granting the accommodation requested would result in substantially increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business. This “substantial burden” showing contrasts with the long-established “de minimis” cost, a test used by courts since 1977. In doing so, the Court heightened the bar for the employers to show that proposed religious accommodations are unduly burdensome and bolstered an employee’s ability to obtain such accommodations at work for their religious practices.

The Background

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to accommodate the religious practice of their employees unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” 42 U.S.C. §2000e(j). In 1977, in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63, the Supreme Court determined that the “undue hardship” defense to granting an employee’s religious accommodation request required employers to show anything imposing more than a “de minimis” cost to the business.

Hardison concerned a dispute between Trans World Airlines (TWA) and its former employee, Hardison, who underwent a religious conversion and began to observe the Sabbath by leaving work from