The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has filed an amicus brief with the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in support of a Jewish employee whose employer denied him the religious accommodation he needed. The employee, Jerome Sandberg, observed the Sabbath and thus could not work from sundown on Fridays through sundown on Saturdays.
For 15 years, Mr. Sandberg’s employer, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), accommodated his religious observance by not assigning him to work shifts on the Sabbath. After 15 years, the TSA informed Mr. Sandberg that it could no longer accommodate him and offered him a combination of shift swaps, paid leave and unpaid leave. That ultimately resulted in a twenty percent loss in Mr. Sandberg’s weekly income.
Mr. Sandberg filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Maryland, alleging that the TSA’s failure to accommodate his religious observance violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The district court granted the TSA’s motion to dismiss Mr. Sandberg’s complaint, relying on a 2008 Fourth Circuit decision. In that 2008 case, the court deemed reasonable the employer’s offer of a combination of shift swapping and leave to an employee who needed a religious accommodation. That 2008 decision governed the result in Mr. Sandberg’s case, the district court concluded. The district court did not examine whether that offer would address Mr. Sandberg’s particular needs and did not require the TSA to show that accommodating Mr. Sandberg would pose an “undue hardship” as mandated by Title VII – i.e., that it would be a substantial burden to the conduct of the TSA’s business.
The Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic is representing Mr. Sandberg in his appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which presents an important opportunity for the Fourth Circuit to consider what constitutes a reasonable religious accommodation in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy. In that case – in which the ZOA also submitted an amicus brief – a unanimous Supreme Court strengthened religious freedom in the workplace by making it clear that an employer must provide religious accommodations to an employee unless doing so would cause substantial increased costs in relation to the employer’s particular business.
The ZOA’s amicus brief highlights the errors in the district court’s decision to dismiss Mr. Sandberg’s case. In addition, the brief documents the serious and alarming problem of antisemitism in the workplace and the critical importance of strong Title VII protections to deter bigotry against Jewish employees.
Morton A. Klein, ZOA’s National President, and Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., director of ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, stated, “Particularly at this time of surging antisemitism, it is more important than ever that the religious liberties of Jews be protected, including in the workplace. The ZOA is proud to stand with Mr. Sandberg and support the vindication of his civil rights.”