Randall Wenger: We need to give robust protection to religious Americans
Randall Wenger, chief counsel for the Independence Law Center representing a Christian postal worker who was denied Sundays off to observe the Sabbath, explains the case on 'The Story.'
Legal counsel representing a Christian postal worker who was reportedly disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays says it is clear the Supreme Court is "going to change the standard" to accommodate religious Americans in the workplace.
Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian mail carrier from Pennsylvania, resigned believing he would be fired from the U.S. Postal Service after he said he could not deliver Amazon packages on Sundays because he observes the Sabbath. Groff’s attorney Aaron Streett is arguing the Supreme Court should overturn precedent that employers can deny religious accommodations to employees if they impose "more than a de minimis cost" on the business, according to a previous Fox News report.
"We understand that we need to give accommodations to employees in all kinds of different areas," Randall Wenger, chief counsel for the Independence Law Center, told "America Reports" on Tuesday. "Think of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We were supposed to reasonably accommodate unless it is an undue hardship and the same thing under religion."
"We're supposed to reasonably accommodate unless there's an undue hardship, but the standard that we use, what we call undue hardship under the ADA, is very different than what we call undue hardship under religion and why would we give less protection for religion than we do for the ADA? We need to give robust protections to religious Americans."
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Gerald Groff lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is a former postal employee. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case on April 18, 2023. (First Liberty Institute)
Wenger said when Groff took the job, the postal service did not deliver mail on Sundays, but this changed when Amazon delivery developed.
"The post office has got lots of employees," the legal counsel explained. "They could have other employees that don't have that religious problem with being able to deliver the packages, but to force him to do it, would be to force him to violate his conscience."
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Wenger said Groff "loved" his job and had "many great years" working at the post office.
"He was a hard worker," Wenger told Fox News. "He would fill in other people's shifts. He would work holidays. He would sometimes work more than one shift a day to get the mail delivered. The post office isn't better off having this really good employer out of here. We're all better off when we can figure out how to make it work for everyone."
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo , Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.