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Wal-Mart wins religion case
May 07, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
What to do when a pharmacist, for religious reasons, refuses to handle birth control prescriptions?
Neil Noesen went to work for Wal-Mart as a pharmacist. He had religious objections to contraceptive articles, so the boss set things up so Noesen did not have to fill birth control prescriptions, take customer orders for birth control, or handle birth control items.
That wasn't enough for Noesen. If a customer phoned in with a birth control prescription, Noesen put them on hold and walked away without alerting someone else. When a customer came to the counter with a birth control prescription, he would walk away without telling anyone that a customer needed assistance.
Wal-Mart fired Noesen, so of course he brought a federal suit claiming a violation of Title VII.
Title VII requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees' religious practices unless that would be an undue hardship.
The 7th Circuit decided it would indeed be an undue hardship on Wal-Mart, because it would require shifting all of Noesen's phone-answering duties and customer counter duties to other employees. The court said Wal-Mart should not be required to increase the duties of other employees or to re-assign other employees.
Noesen v. Medical Staffing Network (7th Cir 05/04/2007) (nonprecedential disposition).
My view: A correct decision. Title VII does not require an employer to do much in a situation like this.
Thanks to Howard M. Friedman at Religion Clause for spotting this case.
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Editor: Ross Runkel, Professor of Law Emeritus. email Ross@LawMemo.Com, Phone 503-399-8028. Copyright LawMemo, Inc.
