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Corporate Counsel Title VII Religious Accommodation

Cozen O'Connor

Facial Hair, Firefighters, and Free Exercise

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A single exception can now unravel your entire workplace safety policy. The Third Circuit's decision on May 30, 2025, in Smith v. Atlantic City, underscores how even minor exceptions to grooming or masking rules can expose...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Executive Agencies Confirm Demise of OFCCP and Identify Private Sector Enforcement Targets

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor released their 2026 Congressional Budget Justifications (CBJ) on May 30, 2025, providing valuable information related to the EEOC’s enforcement...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Cautions Employers on Deciding Legitimacy of Workers' Religious Beliefs

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers established internal procedures to evaluate employees' requests for religious and medical-based exemptions from vaccination mandates. ...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Seventh Circuit: Religious Discrimination Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss Even if Request For Religious Exemption to COVID-19...

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Seyfarth Synopsis: In two cases issued by the Seventh Circuit, Passarella and Dottenwhy v. Aspirus, Inc. and Bube and Hedrington v. Aspirus Hospital, Inc. the Court held that at the motion to dismiss stage, the fact that a...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Federal Courts Reaching Consensus on Religious Exemptions From Vaccine Mandates

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers attempting to enforce safety policies faced resistance from employees opposed to vaccination mandates. In many cases, employees claimed that taking the vaccine violated...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Applying Groff, Indiana District Court Rules in Favor of Employer in Religious Accommodation Claim

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Groff v. DeJoy, which clarified the standard for undue hardship in religious accommodation cases under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a federal district court in Indiana...more

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Religious accommodations, Part 1: What’s a “religion”?

On September 25 a federal court in New York dismissed a lawsuit accusing an employer of failing to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs as a member of the “Temple of the Healing Spirits” located in “Deland city,...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Seventh Circuit Revives Teacher’s Religious Discrimination Case Over Transgender Students’ Names and Pronouns

On July 31, 2023, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals revived a Christian teacher’s religious discrimination lawsuit over his refusal to refer to transgender students by their names and pronouns with which they identified. ...more

Fisher Phillips

SCOTUS 2023 Lookback and 2024 Preview: 7 Critical Decisions All Employers Should Review and 3 New Cases to Track

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The Supreme Court’s blockbuster decisions last term dominated the headlines – and many rulings will have a lasting impact on employer practices. The Justices continued to shape the workplace law landscape by ruling on an...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Navigating Global Religious Accommodation: Insights from Our Lawyers on Employer Responsibilities Towards Religious Beliefs in the...

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In a previous blog, we summarized the recent case of Groff v. Dejoy, where the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously clarified the undue hardship standard under Title VII, a federal law in the United States that prohibits employment...more

Littler

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Title VII Religious Accommodation Standard

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On April 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case raising the issue of how great a burden an employer must bear in order to accommodate an employee’s religious belief or practices....more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Smucker’s Out of a Jam: Sixth Circuit Says Being a Federal Contractor Does Not Make You a State Actor

If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company. During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its...more

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

SCOTUS to Take Another Look at Religious Accommodations

Employment litigators and Constitutional Law attorneys alike should pay close attention to the United States Supreme Court’s calendar, as the Court recently agreed to take up a case that has the potential to change the way...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Supreme Court to Revisit De Minimis Cost Test for Religious Accommodations Under Title VII

McGuireWoods LLP on

On Jan. 13, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the de minimis cost test for religious accommodations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should endure. The Supreme Court granted the petition...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Religious Accommodation Challenges to COVID-19 Vaccination Policies — Lessons for Employers from Preliminary Court Decisions

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Whether to protect the health and safety of their workplaces, to comply with governmental requirements when applicable, or a combination of the two, many employers have adopted mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies. Faced...more

Mintz - Employment Viewpoints

EEOC (Again) Updates Religious Accommodation and Vaccine Mandate Guidance

The EEOC has once again updated its guidance and answers regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic’s interaction with anti-discrimination laws. We previously discussed this guidance here. This guidance, updated on March 1,...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

EEOC Issues Employer Guidance for COVID-19 Vaccinations and Religious Objections

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Throughout the COVID pandemic, healthcare employers have navigated the challenge of balancing safety concerns with employee requests for religious exemption from the vaccine. Since lifting the stay of the CMS rule requiring...more

Fisher Phillips

7 Employer Takeaways from EEOC’s Latest Vaccine Guidance on Religious Accommodations

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) just updated its online COVID-19 technical guidance to further explain its position regarding religious objections to employer COVID-19 vaccination requirements,...more

Fisher Phillips

Top 7 Things You Need To Know As EEOC Says Employers May Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines

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Employers now have clarification that they will be able mandate the COVID-19 vaccine among their workers in certain circumstances without running afoul of key federal anti-discrimination laws, according to updated guidance...more

Fisher Phillips

What Employers And Educational Institutions Need To Know About EEOC’s Proposed Guidance On Religious Discrimination

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The EEOC recently released a draft of its updated guidance on religious discrimination, which – if adopted and finalized – could alter the legal standards applied in workplace disputes for the nation’s employers generally and...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination: Is It Legal and Is It Right for Your Workplace?

By all accounts, the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 is a matter of when, not if. According to the World Health Organization, as of August 25, 2020, 173 potential vaccines are currently being developed in labs across...more

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP

District Court Permits Walmart to "Rollback" Job Offer Because of Undue Hardship from a Religious Accommodation

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin recently addressed an employer's responsibilities to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs. In EEOC v. Walmart Stores East, LP, the court examined whether...more

Roetzel & Andress

What Makes An Undue Hardship In Religious Accommodation? Change May Be On The Horizon

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Employers subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and most state laws understand that they have an obligation to reasonably accommodate the religious beliefs of their employees, unless such accommodation...more

Fisher Phillips

Men Refusing To Work Alone With Women: The HR And Legal Guide

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Can a sincerely held religious belief – or a wife’s personal jealousy – justify a male employee refusing to work with women coworkers or other professional contacts? A federal district court in North Carolina is poised to...more

Fisher Phillips

Appeals Court Rejects Retaliation Claim Based On Religious Accommodation Request

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In a case of first impression, a federal appeals court just found that an applicant’s request for a religious accommodation did not constitute protected activity under Title VII for the purpose of establishing a retaliation...more

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