Summary of facts: The plaintiff is a Jehovah’s Witness state employee who believes that her faith precludes her from “swearing primary allegiance to any human government” over the Kingdom of God. She was denied an accommodation to add language to the oath of office required for California state employees clarifying that she would not take arms against the government and that she would not put the state before God. The Comptroller’s Office, the state office she was supposed to start work for, would not give her this accommodation, even though she was accommodated at prior California state jobs by either not having to take the oath or allowing her to modify the oath.

The plaintiff sued the Comptroller’s Office under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and other provisions.  The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint  for failure to state a claim. The plaintiff appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision, holding that the plaintiff had pleaded a prima facie case of failure to accommodate religion under Title VII by alleging that she held a bona fide religious belief that conflicted with the “faith and allegiance” component of the loyalty oath. The case was remanded to the district court and the Plaintiff then moved for summary judgment.

RFI’s position: There is a clear conflict between the plaintiff’s religion and the oath the state is requiring her to take as a condition of employment. The state will not incur undue hardship if they accommodate her, since it can still preserve its interests by modifying the oath to one the employee can take in good conscience.

Read the brief here.