(The Washington Examiner)
The Supreme Court may hear yet another fascinating case pitting religious freedom against the decision-making rights of private businesses. In this case, it involves one man’s desire to honor the Sabbath and his right to work at a company free of religious discrimination.
Darrell Patterson was a practicing Seventh-day Adventist who worked for Walgreens for six years. Seventh-day Adventists honor the seventh day, Saturday , because God commanded his people to do so. Patterson had an agreement with his supervisor at Walgreens: Because he was a Seventh-day Adventist, he could not work on Saturday, but fellow co-workers covered any of Patterson’s shifts during that period of time. For six years, Patterson didn’t work on Saturdays but never failed to perform well at his job, and often traded Sunday shifts with co-workers to accommodate his faith’s practices.
However, one Saturday, Walgreens executives scheduled an emergency weekend training on Saturday after an error the company made. Patterson was unable to attend the training and was subsequently fired. Read More