Supreme Court sides with Christian postal worker

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled in favor of Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian and former postal worker. Groff’s supervisor initially worked around his Sabbath observance, but that changed when demand increased for Sunday deliveries of Amazon packages. Groff was disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays, and he eventually resigned. He sued USPS for religious discrimination.

Why did the Postal Service discipline Groff? USPS argued that accommodating employees’ Sabbath requests would cause undue hardship for the agency. A lower court initially sided with the Postal Service, saying that a disruption in workflow counted as “undue hardship.” But the justices ruled that a stricter interpretation of “undue hardship” ought to be employed. They sent the case back to a lower court for reconsideration.

Dig deeper: Read Daniel R. Suhr’s column in WORLD Opinions about Groff’s case.