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Second Circuit Revives Religious Discrimination Claim Of Prison Employee Forced To Remove Hijab

Vincent Jackson
02/10/2024
Employment Discrimination, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Religious Discrimination
A recent decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a trial court’s dismissal of a religious discrimination claim brought by a female prison employee who was forced to remove a hijab.  The Plaintiff was a corrections officer who was a practicing Muslim, and who requested to wear a hijab at work.  This was in accordance with Plaintiff’s religious obligation to wear a hijab in the presence of men outside of her family.  The...
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Virginia Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Teacher Who Was Fired Over Pronouns

Vincent Jackson
12/26/2023
Employment Discrimination, First Amendment Protections, Gender Identity, Religious Discrimination, Sexual Orientation, Virginia Employment Law
The Virginia Supreme Court recently issued an opinion in favor of a public school teacher who was terminated after refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a transgendered student.  The case provides an interesting study into the continuing conflicts between LBGTQ rights under federal law and a renewed push for religious freedom. The plaintiff was a French teacher who had worked at the school for six years.  Near the end of the 2017-18 school...
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EEOC Files Amicus Brief In Support Of Religious Accommodations For Refusing Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccinations

Vincent Jackson
11/09/2023
Agency Activity, COVID-19, EEOC, Employment Discrimination, Religious Discrimination
In a recent amicus brief filed in the 8th Circuit, the EEOC has urged heightened protections for workers who object to mandatory vaccinations due to sincerely-held religious beliefs.  The EEOC's amicus brief highlights the unique difficulties employers face when forced to accommodate a religious belief under Title VII. The case, Ringhofer v. Mayo Clinic Ambulance, involves two longtime employees who worked as a paramedic and registered nurse for...
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Repercussions of Supreme Court’s Groff Decision Start Appearing In Religious Exemption Cases

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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Groff v. DeJoy: Employers Have A Clarified Standard For Their Duty To Provide Reasonable Accommodations

Kollman & Saucier
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.

Kollman & Saucier
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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Second Circuit Turns Down Employee’s Claim of Wrongful Termination for Refusal to Attend LGBTQ Bias Training Session

Vincent Jackson
05/18/2023
Gender Identity, Hostile Work Environment, Religious Discrimination, Sexual Orientation
A recent case from the Second Circuit illustrates the growing tension between religious discrimination claims and protection of LGBTQ rights under Title VII.  In Zdunski v. Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES, the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision granting summary judgment against an employee who alleged that, by being forced to attend mandatory LGBTQ  anti-discrimination trainings, he was subject to religious discrimination. The...
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Public School Did Not Discriminate Based On Religion By Requiring High School Teachers To Address Students By Preferred Names And Pronouns

Kollman & Saucier
04/14/2023
Religious Discrimination
Brownsburg Community School Corporation (“Brownsburg” or the “School”) is a public school corporation in Brownsburg, Indiana.  Its high school teachers are required to call all students by the names and pronouns registered in the School’s official student database.  John Kluge, the sole music and orchestra teacher at Brownsburg High School, objected on religious grounds to using the first names of transgender students to the extent that...
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“Preserve” Your Constitutional Rights, But Not Against A Private Employer

Kollman & Saucier
03/27/2023
COVID-19, First Amendment Protections, Religious Discrimination
The world is seemingly going back to pre-Covid normalcy.  Masks, while still present some places, no longer litter the trashcans outside grocery stores and restaurants.  People are taking a big breath of fresh air, and not just six feet from someone. Nevertheless, litigation concerning Covid and company policies regarding the vaccine linger in courts around the U.S.  One such case has seemingly come to an end and the company is out of a...
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A Close Shave (or not) for the “Ministerial Exception”

Kollman & Saucier
02/14/2022
Religious Discrimination
Over the past 10 years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly taken a deep dive into the Venn diagram overlap of balancing anti-discrimination laws against “freedom of religion” under that pesky First Amendment’s “church and state” thing. Relevant to our topic today, the Court addressed the scope of the “ministerial exception” in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171 (2012) and reaffirmed it in Our Lady...
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