Supreme Court rules in favor of woman denied position at store.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Nearly three months after hearing arguments, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a Muslim woman who initiated a lawsuit after being denied a position at an Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store in Oklahoma because of her headscarf, which is worn for religious reasons.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued on behalf of Samantha Elauf, who was denied a sales position in 2008 when she was 17-years-old. Groups representing Christians, Jews and Sikhs also filed court papers backing Elauf.
During the interview, the store manager never brought up Elauf’s headscarf, which technically violates the company’s strict “Look Policy” that dictates what its “sales models” can wear down to the sartorial minutia of the matter. Headgear is one of items explicitly banned by the company’s policy.
The store manager then asked her district supervisor about it – going as far as to say she “assumed” the headscarf was worn for religious reasons, according to court documents. The district supervisor, who denies that the issue of religion was ever raised, told the store manager who conducted the interview that the headscarf disqualified Elauf from the position.
A federal court had initially ruled in favor of Elauf but the 10th U.S. circuit court of appeals overturned the decision, deciding that the impetus rested with the plaintiff to explicitly express that she might be in need of an accommodation, which led to its review at the highest level of the U.S. judicial system.
Despite the Supreme Court deciding that Abercrombie violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents employers from discriminating on the base of race, color, national origin, sex, or religion, the company has implied it will not let the case rest.
“We will determine our next steps in the litigation,” the company released in a statement.
This is not the first time Abercrombie & Fitch has had to mitigate a headscarf-related lawsuit. In 2008, a woman named Halla Banafa alleged a manager at Abercrombie’s Milpitas, California location didn’t hire her because of her headscarf.
Umme-Hani Khan, who worked at one of the company’s Hollister stores in San Francisco, was terminated in 2010 after a district manager visiting her store ordered her to remove her hijab and she refused on the grounds of her faith.