Court to hear cases on employment, housing

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Did retailer Abercrombie & Fitch discriminate against a Muslim woman who was denied a job because her headscarf clashed with the company’s dress code?

That’s the question in one of the 11 cases the Supreme Court said Thursday it will take on in its new term.

The justices took no action on the highly anticipated issue of same-sex marriage, though a decision on the gay-marriage cases could come later this month.

Among the new cases, the court will consider the scope of housing-discrimination laws, the First Amendment rights of judicial candidates to raise campaign money and a challenge from Arizona Republicans over who can draw the state’s congressional districts.

In the Abercrombie dispute, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the retailer after it refused to hire Samantha Elauf at a Tulsa, Okla., store in 2008 because her Muslim hijab conflicted with the company’s “look policy.” The policy was described at the time as a “classic East Coast collegiate style.”

A federal judge initially sided with the EEOC, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, saying Elauf never directly informed her interviewer she needed a religious accommodation, even though she was wearing the headscarf during her interview.

Government lawyers say the appeals-court ruling undercuts legal protections for religious practices because it unfairly places the entire burden to raise the issue with job applicants who often aren’t aware of a potential conflict.