Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores

litigants	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores
arguedate	February 25
argueyear	2015
decidedate	June 1
decideyear	2015
fullname	Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc.
docket	14-86
usvol	575
uspage	768
parallelcitations	135 S. Ct. 2028; 192 L. Ed. 2d 35
prior	798 F. Supp. 2d 1272 (N.D. Okla. 2011); reversed, 731 F.3d 1106 (10th Cir. 2013); cert. granted, 135 S. Ct. 44 (2014).
holding	To prevail in a Title VII disparate-treatment claim, an applicant need show only that their need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer's decision, not that the employer had knowledge of their need.
majority	Scalia
joinmajority	Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan
concurrence	Alito (in judgment)
concurrence/dissent	Thomas
lawsapplied	Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, 575 U.S. 768 (2015), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding a Muslim American woman, Samantha Elauf, who was refused a job at Abercrombie & Fitch in 2008 because she wore a headscarf, which conflicted with the company's dress code.[1] The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 8–1 in Elauf's favor on June 1, 2015.[2]

Background

In 2008, Elauf, then 17 years old, applied for a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During her interview with the company, she was wearing a hijab (headscarf), but did not say why.[1] The woman interviewing her, Heather Cooke, was initially impressed with Elauf, but also concerned about her headscarf.[3] Cooke had told the manager of the store that she thought Elauf was wearing the scarf for religious reasons, but the manager responded that employees were not allowed to wear hats at work, and so declined to hire her.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores

Background

Opinion of the Court

External links

References