The RCA joined in an Amicus Brief written by Nat Lewin in the religious liberties case of Groff v. Dejoy.

March 1, 2023 – Here’s a brief outline of the case.

Groff v. Dejoy (Docket 22-174), is a pending United States Supreme Court case regarding religious liberty and equal employment opportunity under Title VII of the civil rights act. It seeks the Supreme Court to reconsider its past precedent in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison.

Background

Gerald E. Groff, the petitioner in this case was a postman, specifically a Rural Carrier Associate (RCA), working for the United States Postal Service (USPS) from 2012 till 2019. He is an evangelical, protestant Christian and observes Sunday Sabbath. As a result, his religion requires him to rest and worship on a Sunday instead of working.

In 2013, Amazon contracted USPS to deliver their packages. Quarryville soon became an important hub and started delivering Amazon packages from 2015 onwards. Groff was initially an RCA at the Quaryville post office and informed USPS of his religious need and his inability to work on Sundays. Accordingly, the USPS moved to accommodate his religious requirements by allowing him not to work on Sunday insofar as he covers the other shifts throughout the week.

However, on May 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the USPS and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association only allowed the exemption of work on Sunday on 2 conditions; (1) if the person had applied for leave on that day, and, (2) if the person would have exceeded the limit of 40 hours of work that week on Sunday.

The MOU did not provide Groff with a religious exemption to working on Sundays and as a result, the USPS again moved to accommodate him by transferring him to a smaller station that did not do Amazon delivery then, the Holtwood post office.

Similarly to Quarryville, Holtwood also started Sunday Amazon deliveries on March 2017. The USPS. The postmaster at Holtwood then tried to oblige with his request by allowing him to pray on Sunday morning before returning to work later in the day, Groff refused such an offer and skipped work on Sundays. In the peak season of 2017, another RCA volunteered to take over his shifts on Sunday, but the personnel fell ill, leaving the rest of the RCAs and the postmaster to be additionally burdened to take over delivery on Sundays.

Groff continued to be absent from his scheduled work on Sundays after the 2017 peak season and consequently was punished, so he filed a complaint asking USPS to transfer him to a job that did not require him to work on Sundays. This complaint was promptly denied as no position in USPS had such an exemption.

Groff eventually resigned in 2019 and sued the USPS for 2 reasons, he was “disparate(ly) treat(ed)” due to his religion and failure to accommodate his religion.”

Click here to read the Amicus Brief.