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Mitche A. Dalberiste v. GLE Associates, Inc.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 20-11101 · judgment May 19, 2020

Certiorari denied · April 5, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 11% cert probability (95% interval 6%–18%)

Before the decision, about 2.6× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a petition filed soon after the judgment below, counsel with five or more prior petitions here, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

Title VII requires employers to reasonably accommodate their employees' religious practicessuch as abstaining from work on the Sabbath-unless the employer can demonstrate that it is "unable" to provide an accommodation "without undue hardship" 42 U.S.C. 2000e(i). This Court has not addressed the proper interpretation of "undue hardship" since Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63 (1977), which said a hardship is "undue" if it poses anything more than a de minimis burden on the employer. Four decades of hard experience have shown that courts willingly find nearly any burden an employer invokes to be more than de minimis-especially in cases involving minority religions. As a result, employees of faith across the country have been left without a vital protection that Congress enacted. It is unsurprising, therefore, that several members of this Court, along with the United States in an invited brief, have expressly recognized the need to "grant review in an appropriate case to consider whether Hardison's interpretation [of undue hardship] should be overruled." Patterson v. Walgreen Co., 140 S.Ct. 685, 686 (2020) (Alito, J., concurring in the denial of certiorari). This is such a case. The question presented 1s: Whether the Court should reconsider Hardison and set a proper legal standard for determining what constitutes an "undue hardship" under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e(i)?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Gene Clayton Schaerr
Schaerr | Jaffe

For respondent
Phillip Joseph Harris
Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 13 conferences

Amicus briefs
5 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Apr 05 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Mar 29 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/1/2021.
  3. Mar 22 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/26/2021.
  4. Mar 15 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/19/2021.
  5. Mar 01 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/5/2021.
  6. Feb 22 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/26/2021.
  7. Feb 12 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/19/2021.
  8. Jan 19 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/22/2021.
  9. Jan 19 2021
    Rescheduled.
  10. Jan 12 2021
    Rescheduled.
  11. Jan 11 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/15/2021.
  12. Jan 05 2021
    Rescheduled.
  13. Jan 04 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021.
  14. Dec 09 2020
    Rescheduled.
  15. Dec 07 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/11/2020.
  16. Dec 01 2020
    Rescheduled.
  17. Nov 30 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/4/2020.
  18. Nov 18 2020
    Rescheduled.
  19. Nov 04 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/20/2020.
  20. Oct 02 2020
    Rescheduled.
  21. Sep 16 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/9/2020.
  22. Sep 15 2020
    Reply of petitioner Mitche A. Dalberiste filed. (Distributed)
  23. Sep 01 2020
    Brief of respondent GLE Associates, Inc. in opposition filed.
  24. Aug 06 2020
    Brief amici curiae of Robert P. Roesser and National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. filed.
  25. Aug 06 2020
    Brief amici curiae of Christian Legal Society, National Association of Evangelicals, Association of Christian Schools International, Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, Queens Federation of Churches filed.
  26. Aug 06 2020
    Brief amici curiae of Religious Liberty Scholars et al. filed.
  27. Aug 05 2020
    Brief amicus curiae of Founders' First Freedom filed.
  28. Jul 31 2020
    Brief amici curiae of Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty et al. filed.
  29. Jul 28 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including September 2, 2020.
  30. Jul 27 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 6, 2020 to September 2, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  31. Jul 27 2020
    Blanket Consent filed by Respondent, GLE Associates, Inc.
  32. Jul 22 2020
    Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Mitche A. Dalberiste.
  33. Jun 24 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 6, 2020)