Supreme Court ruling in favor of mail carrier celebrated across religious spectrum
Gerald Groff, a former postal worker, on March 8 in Quarryville, Pennsyvlania. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
In siding with an evangelical Christian mail carrier who quit the US Postal Service after he was forced to deliver packages on Sundays, his Sabbath, the Supreme Court on Thursday did something rare: It brought a whole panoply of US religions together.
The unanimous ruling in Groff v. DeJoy clarified that employers must do more than the minimum to accommodate workers’ requests related to religious observance.
The ruling mostly vindicates Gerald Groff, a former mail carrier from Pennsylvania, who sued the post office, saying the requirement that he work on Sundays violated his deeply held belief that Sunday was his day of rest. (US mail is not usually delivered Sundays, but in 2013, the USPS signed a contract with Amazon to deliver the company’s packages, including on Sundays.)
