Supreme Court Miniseries: Religious Accommodation at Work
Employment Law Now VII-133 - Hot Summer Employment Law Developments
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS Introduces Heightened Standard for Religious Accommodation, Rules Against Affirmative Action, Protects “Expressive” Services - Employment Law This Week®
#WorkforceWednesday: The Biden EEOC, New Religious Guidance, and Diversity Training Ban Repealed - Employment Law This Week
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Particularly since pandemic-era vaccination requirements, American employers have faced increasing enforcement actions and litigation regarding religious accommodation requests. Additionally, in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court...more
Two years ago, the long dormant duty to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices was awakened by the U.S. Supreme Court in Groff v. Dejoy. Gone were the days when an employer could justify the denial of a...more
Regulators and courts in both the U.S. and UK have been seeking to navigate the complex balance between employees’ rights to religious expression and employers’ interests. In particular, recent developments—namely, two U.S....more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently issued significant decisions against two federal employers for failing to provide reasonable religious accommodations to their employees. These decisions...more
Since vaccines became available in response to COVID-19, courts have dealt with an onslaught of litigation involving religious accommodation in the workplace. Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...more
On July 28, 2025, the United States Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) issued a memorandum endorsing federal employees expressing their religious beliefs in the workplace. Specifically, OPM Director Scott Kupor instructed...more
Six months into the new Trump administration, it is clear that the EEOC is concentrating its efforts on religious discrimination in the workplace. Since President Trump’s inauguration, 25% of the new lawsuits or enforcement...more
The COVID-19 pandemic brought workplace vaccination policies to the forefront, raising complex questions about religious accommodations. Over four years after the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, these policies remain...more
A Maryland employer recently found itself in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) doghouse when it allegedly summarily rejected an employee’s accommodation request to have his service animal come to work with...more
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled yesterday that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) overstepped its authority by requiring employers to accommodate elective abortions that are not medically necessary....more
After the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, on January 30 a federal district court denied dueling motions for summary judgment filed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the U.S. Postal Service, and former Postal...more
Most requests for disability accommodation arise out of the impact of an employee’s medical condition on their ability to perform their job duties. But sometimes an employer is confronted with a disabled employee requesting...more
Employment discrimination in the workplace is alive and well. Indeed, according to Monster’s recent Workplace Discrimination Poll, only 9% of workers claim to have NOT faced some form of workplace discrimination. There have...more
HOUSTON – VibraLife of Katy, LLC, a rehabilitation and assisted living facility in Katy, Texas, will pay $80,000 and furnish other relief to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) disability...more
When considering accommodations requested by an employee due to a disability, employers sometimes fail to think through the long-term effects of such changes. In many cases, the accommodation request is permanent, meaning...more
Suncakes NC, LLC, a North Carolina-based company, and Suncakes, LLC, a Texas-based company doing business as IHOP (collectively “Suncakes”), will pay $40,000 and provide other relief to settle a religious discrimination and...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced a settlement to resolve a discrimination charge alleging an employer terminated a pregnant employee after she requested a reasonable accommodation to...more
A North Carolina restaurant franchisee has agreed to pay $40,000 and take other corrective measures to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC after being accused of denying a cook’s...more
Few issues are more sensitive for employers than accommodating employees’ religious practices and observances. In recent years, Muslim employees and their employers have struggled with how to handle the religious requirement...more
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which became effective on June 27, 2023, requires covered employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for a qualified employee’s limitations surrounding pregnancy and childbirth...more
On April 19, 2024, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) issued a final rule (the Rule) to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). Although the PWFA went into effect last year in June 2023, the EEOC’s...more
On April 19, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its final rule interpreting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Today, the newly minted regulations went into effect....more
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which has been in force since June 27, 2023, expands protections for individuals by requiring covered employers make reasonable accommodations to “known limitations” related to...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the “EEOC”) issued a final regulation to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”). The regulation goes into effect on June 18, 2024....more
On April 15, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a Final Rule on implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). The PWFA was enacted in December 2022 and has been in effect since June...more