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Repercussions of Supreme Court’s Groff Decision Start Appearing In Religious Exemption Cases

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
09/29/2023
COVID-19, EEOC, Employment Discrimination, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Religious Discrimination
The impact of the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling in Groff v. DeJoy, which raised the standard for employers to accommodate religious exemptions, is beginning to be felt in lower courts.  Gone are the days when an employer can lawfully disregard a religious accommodation if it imposes more than a de minimis cost on the business.  With Groff, employers must now demonstrate that the burden of granting a religious accommodation for an employee...
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ADA May Require Reasonable Accommodations Related To Work Commutes

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
09/06/2023
ADA, Disability & Leave, EEOC, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden
Federal Circuits are split over whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to accommodate commuting or transportation difficulties outside the work environment.  In late July 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided a case applying the ADA to an employee who requested a schedule change because his cataracts made it difficult to commute safely at night.  The Seventh Circuit concluded the ADA might...
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How to Accommodate a Pain in the Butt

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
07/12/2023
Disability & Leave, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by George W.H. Bush 33 years ago this month – the same year our first child was born.  Like most youngsters, the early years of the ADA’s existence found it growing in fits and starts.  It was sent to the principal’s office (the Supreme Court in this case), more than any other kid in the class.  Most of those times it was seen by SCOTUS as being “too big for its britches” and...
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Groff v. DeJoy: Employers Have A Clarified Standard For Their Duty To Provide Reasonable Accommodations

Jordan Dunham
Jordan Dunham
06/29/2023
Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Religious Discrimination, Supreme Court Decisions
On June 29, 2023 the United States Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Groff v. DeJoy, 600 U.S. ___ (2023).  This highly anticipated decision changes the individual assessment employers must use when evaluating a request for accommodation for religious reasons and whether the accommodation is reasonable or creates an undue hardship.  While this is one of several highly anticipated rulings from the high court this summer, it is not...
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Pronouns Present Problems? Please.

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
05/22/2023
Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Religious Discrimination
I (he/him) grew up in a small farm town in Western New York.  I represent a number of institutions of higher education, as well as a number of faith-based non-profits.  So, when an article was printed in last Friday’s New York Times that merged those things together?  That’s like chocolate and peanut butter; it got my attention.  This blog looks at reports of the recent firing of two employees at Houghton University.  At this point it is...
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“Most Qualified” v. ADA Accommodation: Who Wins?

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
04/03/2023
Disability & Leave, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden
Anyone who has engaged in the ADA’s interactive process to provide a “qualified individual with a disability” (meaning that the individual has a “mental or physical impairment” that “substantially limits one or more major life activities”) with a “reasonable accommodation” that does not involve an “undue hardship” to enable them to perform the “essential functions of the job” knows just how challenging that task can be....
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Service Animals In The COVID-Era Workplace

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/05/2021
COVID-19, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden
There are endless articles and blog posts about COVID and the workplace, whether managing remote workers, implementing a safe return to work, vaccination mandates, testing procedures, masking, reasonable accommodation requests on all of these issues, and all of the related issues that have been on the forefront for the past nineteen (!!) months.  One topic, however, that has not received as much press, at least per my internet searches, is handling...
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The EEOC Takes On Its First COVID-Telework Lawsuit Under The ADA.

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/29/2021
Agency Activity, COVID-19, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Telework, Uncategorized
Earlier this month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its first lawsuit under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) against a facility management services company, ISS Facility Services, Inc., due its failure to permit one of its employees to continue working remotely amidst COVID.  The case is EEOC v. ISS Facility Servs., Inc., No. 1:21-CV-3708-SCJ-RDC (N.D. Ga. 2021). Ronisha Moncrief worked as a Health Safety and...
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Virginia Employers Must Post Reasonable Accommodations Poster In Workplace

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
07/13/2021
Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Virginia Employment Law
As of July 1, 2021, covered Virginia employers are required by the Virginia Office of Civil Rights to post the newly issued poster in a conspicuous location and provide a copy of the poster to any employee who discloses they have a disability, within ten (10) days of the employee's disclosure.  This information about reasonable accommodations must also be included in their employee handbooks.   A covered employer for purposes of this requirement...
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Telework May Be A Continuing Reasonable Accommodation

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
03/24/2021
Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Telework
The case of Brownlow v. Alfa Vision Insurance Co., No. 3:18-cv-01241 (M.D. Tenn. Mar. 22, 2021), involves a set of facts from pre-COVID times (2016 and 2017 to be exact).  Mr. Brownlow, a former claims appraiser for an automobile insurance company, was diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD.  He requested and was granted the ability to telework as a reasonable accommodation for a period...
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