MSNBC: Abercrombie & Fitch loses headscarf case at Supreme Court

By Irin Carmon, June 1, 2015, MSNBC

Abercrombie & Fitch likely broke the law when it refused to hire a Muslim teenager because she wore a headscarf, eight justices of the Supreme Court ruled Monday in an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia. The mall retailer had claimed it was only applying its supposedly neutral “Look Policy” prohibiting caps, and that its conduct was legal because the job applicant, Samantha Elauf, didn’t explicitly ask for an accommodation.

But the court found that under Tittle VII of the Civil Rights Act, the burden is on the employer not to discriminate in hiring. “An applicant need only show that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer’s decision,” wrote Scalia for the majority.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that because no caps were allowed at all, and not just religious head-coverings, the store chain should have prevailed. “It did not treat religious practices less favorably than similar secular practices,” Thomas wrote, “but instead remained neutral with regard to religious practices.”

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