WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Walgreens, turning away an appeal by a fired former Florida employee of the pharmacy chain who asked not to work on Saturdays for religious reasons as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The justices declined to review a lower court ruling in Darrell Patterson’s religious discrimination lawsuit that concluded that his demand to never work on Saturday, observed as the Sabbath by Seventh-day Adventists, placed an undue hardship on Walgreens.
Patterson, who had trained customer service representatives at a Walgreens call center in Orlando, was fired in 2011 after failing to show up for work on a Saturday for an urgent training session.
The case tested the allowances companies must make for employees for religious reasons to comply with a federal anti-discrimination law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
Under Title VII, employers must “reasonably accommodate” workers’ religious practices unless that would cause the company “undue hardship.”
Asked by the justices for its views on the case, President Donald Trump’s administration in December suggested that the court review only part of the dispute - whether lower courts used an improper standard to judge “undue hardship” - one that is too favorable to companies.
The case pitted business interests against religious rights, two issues that often find favor with the conservative justices who hold a 5-4 majority on the high court.
Walgreens is part of Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
Patterson
