New Rules for Religious Discrimination and Accommodation In the Workplace

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . .”  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans employment discrimination based on religion, along with other protected characteristics. This means that both the Federal government and private employers have long been required to provide reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs unless they impose an undue hardship. 

This test used to be fairly easy for an employer to meet, but a 2023 Supreme Court decision held that employers must meet a substantial burden to justify not accommodating a religious belief or practice. And recent compliance guidance from the EEOC notes that “While supervisors are permitted to engage in certain religious expression, they should avoid expression that might—due to their supervisory authority—reasonably be perceived by subordinates as coercive, even when not so intended.” The EEOC’s acting leadership has embraced this focus with enforcement priorities that include “protecting workers from religious bias and harassment, including antisemitism and anti-Christian bias.”

In this webinar, Larry Stine and Betsy Dorminey will examine these new trends in enforcement and provide advice on how employers can tailor compliance under these new rules. Please join us at noon on October 3, 2025, for a legal and practical discussion.