A U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer in Colorado has received a religious accommodation allowing him to avoid regularly working on Sundays after previously being denied the request.
Adam Diemert, who is based in Glenwood Springs, was recently granted the accommodation. A devout Presbyterian, Diemert attends church services twice each Sunday.
His legal team said Diemert submitted two requests for Sundays off, both of which were initially rejected even though he offered to work on Sundays when emergencies arose.
Diemert began serving in the position in 2024 after it had remained vacant for several years. From March 2024 through the following 10 months, he used personal leave on Sundays and volunteered to work two Sundays when needed. His attorneys argued that his willingness to respond during emergencies undermined the government’s claim of “undue hardship.”
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the June 2023 case Groff v. DeJoy that a lower court had applied the wrong standard when requiring a postal worker to work Sundays despite his sincerely held religious beliefs.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, said the meaning of “undue hardship” needed to be more clearly defined when employers consider requests for religious accommodation.
“What is most important is that ‘undue hardship’ in Title VII means what it says, and courts should resolve whether a hardship would be substantial in the context of an employer’s business in the commonsense manner that it would use in applying any such test,” wrote Alito.
“An employer who fails to provide an accommodation has a defense only if the hardship is ‘undue,’ and a hardship that is attributable to employee animosity to a particular religion, to religion in general, or to the very notion of accommodating religious practice cannot be considered ‘undue.’”
Last November, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins issued new guidance addressing religious accommodation and expression rights within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“USDA must provide reasonable scheduling accommodations for daily prayers, sabbath observance, and religious holidays unless it creates substantial operational burden,” noted the guidance, in part.
Rollins said at the time that “we must preserve religious liberty, not only as a constitutional guarantee, but also as a safeguard for every other freedom we hold dear.”
“From the very beginning, America has recognized the freedom of religion as the bedrock principle of our Republic. It is no accident that the First Amendment protects the free exercise of faith alongside the freedoms of speech and assembly,” stated Rollins.
“By protecting the right of every American to live out their faith and express religiously inspired ideas in public and in the workplace without fear, we are defending the very foundation of American liberty for this generation and the next.”
