The Curious Case Of Bobby Brown v. F.L. Roberts

In fiscal year 2008, the EEOC received 2,880 complaints of religious discrimination, up from 1,786 complaints received in 1998. See http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/religion.html. In response to the substantial increase in religious discrimination claims, in July 2008 the EEOC revised its Compliance Manual and published Questions and Answers (http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion.html) and Best Practices (http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/best_practices_religion.html) to address religious discrimination in the workplace, including guidance on employers' obligations to provide reasonable accommodations of employees' religious practices. Compliance with federal law, however, is not enough to avoid liability. Two recent decisions from the state and federal courts in Massachusetts underscore the potential tensions between federal and state approaches to accommodating religion in the workplace.