Steven E. Abraham
The Impact of Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Businesses and Employment Supreme Court recent decision on religious accommodations, freedom of speech, affirmative action, unions and strikes, may affect your affect your business
Steven E. Abraham is a professor in the school of business at SUNY Oswego. He also has practiced labor and employment law in New York City.
Three recent decisions have the potential to impact the way businesses operate
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upreme Court decisions sometimes impact businesses and their employees. At the end of June, the Supreme Court issued three decisions, all of which have the potential to impact the way businesses operate. In addition, a decision from January 2023 will impact unionized businesses as well.
Religious accommodations In an article that appeared in the Oswego County Business Magazine in April 2022, I wrote about businesses’ duty to accommodate employees’ religious observance. Employers’ duty to make religious accommodations was clarified recently by the court in a case known as Groff v. DeJoy. Gerald Groff, who worked as mail carrier for USPS, requested not work on Sundays as a religious accommodation. The postal service tried to find other carriers to cover Groff’s Sunday shifts, but was unable to do so. As a result, it refused Groff’s request to have Sundays off, stating that his requested accommodation would cause “undue hardship.” Eventually, the case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Groff. According to the court, in determining whether an employee’s accommodation requests would cause undue hardship, “courts must ... take into account all relevant factors in the case at hand, including the particular accommodations at issue and their practical impact in light of the nature, size and operating
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cost of an employer.” The court clarified that an employer experiences an “undue hardship” in the context of an employee’s request for religious accommodations only when an employer shows that “a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business” (emphasis added). Most experts have expressed the opinion that the court’s decision will make it more difficult for employers to avoid accommodating an employee’s request for religious accommodation. Employers should consider all aspects of how different religious accommodations may impact the nature and costs of their particular businesses.
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Freedom of speech In another recent decision, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits states from forcing business owners to promulgate/publish messages with which the business owners disagree on religious grounds. 303 Creative LLC offered website and graphic design, marketing advice and social media management services. The owner, Lorie Smith, wanted to begin creating wedding websites for customers, but was concerned that the state of Colorado would force her to express views inconsistent with her belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman. At the time, Colorado had a law prohibiting businesses from refusing to deal with to any customer based on sexual orientation (as well as
