Stephen Henley Locher

On religious-accommodation / religious-discrimination claims, Locher enforces the Eighth Circuit's prima facie framework strictly at the threshold: the plaintiff must identify a bona fide religious belief that actually CONFLICTS with (i.e., requires non-compliance with) an employment requirement AND must have informed the employer of the need for accommodation before violating the policy. A religiously neutral policy applied to religiously motivated misconduct, with no advance accommodation request, defeats the claim as a matter of law before any undue-hardship analysis. Practical lesson: to survive summary judgment before Locher on a religious-discrimination theory, plead and prove a specific religious obligation that required the conduct and concrete advance notice to the employer of the conflict.

“In the absence of a conflict, however, the law does not require the employer to give preferential treatment to an employee who violates a religiously neutral policy even if the violation is motivated by religious beliefs, particularly if the employer has no reason to believe, in advance, that an accommodation is needed... As Snyder has not identified any religious belief or practice that required him to post his message, and as there is no evidence that he placed his employer on notice that he needed an accommodation from company policy prior to violating it, he has failed as a matter of law to establish a prima facie case for religious discrimination.”