LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) -- The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of a Lancaster County man on Thursday, June 29.
Gerald Groff refused to work on Sundays because of his religion, and the United States Postal Service didn't like that. However, Groff prevailed in the high court.
While Groff won this battle, the war is not quite over.
"It has very broad ramifications," said former federal judge and President of Dickinson College John Jones.
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Groff said he was punished after refusing to work on Sundays for the postal service because of his religious beliefs. Once the USPS made a deal to deliver Amazon packages on Sundays, Groff declined and even transferred to a different post office with no Sunday routes.
But when the location he transferred to started doing Amazon deliveries on Sundays, Groff dug in his heels and the post office said his refusal was too much to accommodate.
"After I did lose my job, the reason I continued further was because I didn't want this to happen to other people in America," Groff told abc27.
"The court said today, just because you have to pay some overtime or because it is a little harder to get people to work, that's not enough for you to deny the accommodation. It needs to be more substantial," Jones added.
But a two-word Latin phrase could have made all the difference in Groff's case.
"The United States Supreme Court ruled that the word 'de minimis' was wrong. And in fact, the test should be whether the accommodation imposes a substantial hardship on the employer," Jones said.
That test will come, says Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center.
"The court vacated the decision and mandated it back to the third circuit," Wenger said.
But for now, it's a victory that Groff's party has been waiting for.
"The good news is that the United States Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, is affirming the value of religion in the workplace," Wenger said.
There is no timetable on when Groff and his attorneys will argue their case before the appeals court again. And there is no guarantee he'll win.
In writing the opinion for this case, Justice Samuel Alito said the postal service may prevail, but what matters the most is making sure the law is applied correctly.
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