PHI445 Week 5 Discussion, Discrimination Laws: Advantages and Disadvantages

PHI445 Week 5 Discussion, Discrimination Laws: Advantages and DisadvantagesIn the Abercrombie & Fitch lawsuit a practicing Muslim, Samantha Elauf wore a headscarf to an interview. The headscarf is part of her religious practice, but during the interview she never explained it nor asked for a special accommodation to the company’s “look policy” that included no hats. She qualified to be hired, but Abercrombie & Fitch deemed that the headscarf violated their look policy and as a result she did not obtain the position. As a result, Samantha filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and sued the company and received a summary judgment that was reversed by the Tenth Circuit. They claimed that Samantha was obligated to inform Abercrombie that her religious practice needed an accommodation to their job requirements of the “look policy”. “According to the Tenth Circuit, “an employer cannot be liable under Title VII for failing to accommodate a religious practice until the job applicant provides the employer with actual knowledge of the need for an accommodation” (Collins & Sokolowski, 2015, para 3). The Supreme Court reversed and the “court found that a job applicant need only demonstrate that a prospective employer’s desire to avoid providing a religious accommodation was a motivating factor in its decision not to hire, not that the employer actually knew of the need for an accommodation” (Collins & Sokolowski, 2015, para 1). Title VII does not contain any limitation that imposes a knowledge requirement; rather it states “prohibits certain motives” (Collins & Sokolowski, 2015). In the U.S., we have a relatively free market system, in which businesses are governed by the laws of supply and demand, not constrained by interference from the government (Feiser, 2015). They are given the freedom to do as they please with their business.