Religion

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By: Erin Chow, Lukas Huldi, and Michael Steinberg

Seyfarth Synopsis: In a dispute over workplace vaccination requirements, a federal district court in Oregon joined a growing trend in workplace vaccination litigation when it ruled that a plaintiff’s allegations of religious conflict with vaccination are sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss even when religious motives are coupled…

Continue Reading Finding Religion on a Motion to Dismiss: Federal Court Concludes that Plaintiff’s Secular Concerns About COVID Vaccines Do Not Foreclose Religious Discrimination Claims

By: Samantha L. Brooks and Dawn Reddy Solowey

Seyfarth Synopsis: In two cases issued by the Seventh Circuit, Passarella and Dottenwhy v. Aspirus, Inc. and  Bube and Hedrington v. Aspirus Hospital, Inc. the Court held that at the motion to dismiss stage, the fact that a religious accommodation request (as plead in a complaint) “involves or even rests” on…

Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: Religious Discrimination Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss Even if Request For Religious Exemption to COVID-19 Vaccine Includes Non-Religious Reasoning

By Peter Talibart, Kiran Seldon, Erin Hawthorne and Kathryn Weaver

Seyfarth Synopsis: In a previous blog, we summarized the recent case of Groff v. Dejoy, where the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously clarified the undue hardship standard under Title VII, a federal law in the United States that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national…

Continue Reading Navigating Global Religious Accommodation: Insights from Our Lawyers on Employer Responsibilities Towards Religious Beliefs in the Workforce

By Julia Tape and Linda C. Schoonmaker,

Seyfarth Synopsis: In Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Fifth Circuit endorsed for-profit employers integrating their religious beliefs into their employment policies to apply the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) as a shield from complying with the prohibitions against sex discrimination under Title VII of the…

Continue Reading The Fifth Circuit Recognizes a “Super Statute” for Religious For-Profit Employers

By Dawn Solowey, Lynn Kappelman, and Darien Harris

Seyfarth Synopsis:  A unanimous Supreme Court has issued its decision in Groff v. Dejoy, clarifying Title VII’s undue hardship standard to mean “substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.”  The Court effectively disavowed the long-standing de minimis standard from the seminal TWA v. Hardison…

Continue Reading A Unanimous Supreme Court Rules on Undue Hardship in Religious Accommodation: De Minimis Is Out, “Substantial Increased Costs” Is In

By J. Todd Bernhardt and Timothy M. Hoppe

Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 8, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in Fenico v. City of Philadelphia that police officers disciplined for offensive Facebook posts stated a First Amendment claim sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. The court avoided commenting on the merits of…

Continue Reading Bitter Medicine: Third Circuit Holds Officers Disciplined for Offensive Social Media Posts Stated a First Amendment Claim 

By Darien C. Harris, Dawn Reddy Solowey, and Lynn A. Kappelman

Seyfarth Synopsis: A Third Circuit ruling against a former United States Postal Service employee’s Title VII religious discrimination claim is under review at the Supreme Court in Groff v. DeJoy. Petitioner’s brief urged the Court to overturn decades of precedent established by the seminal case, Trans…

Continue Reading Arguments for SCOTUS to Preserve and Clarify Hardison now in Play as the U.S. Postal Service and its Amici Supporters Fire Back

By Dov Kesselman and Samuel I. Rubinstein

Seyfarth Synopsis: After the past few years of favorable policy changes and court decisions, religious employers have to navigate the realities of a different presidential administration with its unique set of policy preferences.  The Department of Labor recently filed notices in two Court actions suggesting that it will be rescinding its prior faith-based …
Continue Reading Losing My Religion? How Faith-Based Employers Will Operate During the Biden Administration