WASHINGTON — On Thursday, in a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States breathed life back into a major civil rights law meant to prevent discrimination by employers against people of faith in the workplace.

The case, Groff v. DeJoy, was about a postal service worker whose religious beliefs require him to rest on the Sabbath, and who was punished for following that belief. The Supreme Court recognized that its previous ruling in a case called TWA v. Hardison had been wrongly interpreted to narrow protections for religious employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Court corrected that error.

“In so many ways today we see people of faith being told that they can only follow their religious beliefs in private or within the four walls of a church,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty. “But religious freedom means nothing if it does not extend to the public square. And the public square is better off when religion is welcome there.”

“In the workplace, we meet and collaborate with people from other walks of life. Working together requires navigating personal differences with compassion and respect – and that obligation applies to religious differences no less than others,” Cardinal Dolan noted, indicating how the case relates to the efforts of many employers to honor diversity. 

The USCCB submitted an amicus brief on the case, available here.