Source: Christian Science Monitor
An Illinois jury awarded $240,000 in damages and back pay to two former truck drivers who claimed religious discrimination when they were fired in 2009 after refusing to make beer deliveries.
A jury was convened to determine damages after US District Court Judge James E. Shadid ruled in favor of Mahad Abass Mohamed and Abdkiarim Hassan Bulshale when Star Transport admitted liability in March. The men, both of whom are Somali-American Muslims, were represented by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers must make accommodations for workers’ religious beliefs unless doing so would impose “undue hardship” on the business.
As UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh explained to The Washington Post, the trucking company admitted that drivers often switched their assignments, meaning it would have been reasonable to accommodate the men’s request, rather than firing them.
The jury delivered its verdict in 45 minutes, on Oct. 20. However, the case appears to have picked up national attention when Fox News’ Megyn Kelly invited the channel’s legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano on air Monday, where the two criticized the government-appointed agency for cherry picking cases to serve a political agenda.
“It’s unfortunate when the government interferes in a private dispute over religious views and takes sides, and chooses one religion over another,” Judge Napolitano said, responding to Ms. Kelly’s accusation that the government had not provided Christians who object to workplace demands with the same protections as the Muslim truck drivers.
Kelly specifically cited the cases of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk briefly jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide, and private bakers’ disputed rights to refuse serving gay couples.
Categories: Secularism