In siding unanimously with Gerald Groff, the Supreme Court signaled that religious observance can no longer be brushed aside as a trivial inconvenience in the modern workplace. By discarding the old “more than de minimis cost” test, the justices elevated the meaning of “undue hardship” closer to what Congress wrote and how it is used in other civil rights laws. Employers must now show real, not symbolic, difficulty or expense before denying an accommodation request.

The decision lands far beyond one rural post office in Pennsylvania. Minority faith communities that long shouldered the harshest effects of the Hardison standard see new hope that their holy days and practices will be taken seriously. At the same time, unions and secular workers fear strained schedules and resentment. The Court has not ended the tension between conscience and commerce; it has insisted that, at last, the struggle be taken seriously.