The Supreme Court has sided with a Muslim woman who did not get hired after she showed up to a job interview with clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch wearing a head scarf.
The justices said Monday that employers generally have to accommodate job applicants and employees with religious needs if the employer at least has an idea that such accommodation is necessary.
Held: To prevail in a disparate-treatment claim, an applicant need show only that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer’s decision, not that the employer had knowledge of his need.
Job applicant Samantha Elauf did not tell her interviewer she was Muslim.
But Justice Antonin Scalia said for the court that Abercrombie "at least suspected" that Elauf wore a head scarf for religious reasons. Scalia said: "That is enough."
"Abercrombie’s primary argument is that an applicant cannot show disparate treatment without first showing that an employer has 'actual knowledge' of the applicant’s need for an accommodation," he wrote in delivering the court's opinion. "We disagree. Instead, an applicant need only show that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer’s decision."
Read the opinion