FFRF filed this Supreme Court amicus brief in support of the United States Postal Service on March 30, 2023. This case involved a Christian postal worker, Gerald Groff, who observed the Sabbath and requested to not work on Sundays. After Sunday deliveries became commonplace due to USPS contracts with Amazon, USPS initially accommodated Groff’s request by scheduling co-workers to swap or cover Groff’s Sunday shifts. This eventually became difficult at a small station with few employees and USPS ultimately determined that continuing to accommodate Groff was causing undue hardship.
This amicus took the position that granting an employee the religious privilege of not working Sundays harmed co-workers, customers and other parties by creating an undue hardship. It also pushed back against the plaintiff’s Title VII argument, explaining that courts have denied Title VII religious discrimination cases when the accommodation would harass or cause distress to customers, co-workers or subordinates.
