Supreme Court Sides With Muslim Job Applicant Against Abercrombie & Fitch

The company’s “look policy” led the clothing retailer not to hire a woman who wore a headscarf.

MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a Muslim woman who sought to work at Abercrombie & Fitch but was rejected because her headscarf – worn because of her religious practices – violated the company's "look policy."

The clothing retailer argued that the woman, Samantha Elauf, never requested a religious accommodation and, therefore, its failure to hire her could not be illegal.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit on Elauf's behalf, arguing that requiring Elauf to give specific notice to Abercrombie & Fitch that she would want a religious accommodation was not required under Title VII.

The ban on "disparate treatment" in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, "prohibits actions taken with the motive of avoiding the need for accommodating a religious practice," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Supreme Court on Monday. "A request for accommodation, or the employer's certainty that the practice exists, may make it easier to infer motive, but is not a necessary condition of liability."

Scalia wrote the opinion for the court, to which only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Justice Samuel Alito agreed with the court's decision but wrote separately.

Abercrombie & Fitch didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Sapna Maheshwari