Supreme Court solidifies protections for workers who ask for religious accommodations

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is using the case of a Christian mailman who didn’t want to work Sundays to solidify protections for workers who are religious.

In a unanimous decision the justices made clear that workers who ask for religious accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in “substantial increased costs” to the business.

The court made clear that businesses must cite more than minor costs — so-called “de minimis” costs — to reject requests for religious accommodations at work.

Unlike most cases before the court, both sides in the case had agreed businesses needed to show more.