Discrimination claims are rising. Just recently another national department store, Dillard’s Inc., settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $70,000.00.
Last Tuesday, the US Supreme Court heard an oral argument in Groff v. DeJoy, a case in which the Court is considering whether to overturn decades of precedent established in the 1977 case of TWA v. Hardison (“Hardison”). Hardison established that an employer is not obligated to accommodate an employee’s religion if the accommodation would create more than a “de minimis” burden on the employer’s operations, or an “undue hardship.”
As employers know, federal law prohibits national origin discrimination and citizenship discrimination. While both these forms of discrimination can overlap, there are important differences between them.