Updated Religious Discrimination Guidance Approved by Split EEOC

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to finalize changes to its guidance on religious discrimination in the workplace, updating that section of its compliance manual for the first time since 2008.

The workplace civil rights agency modernized the guidance with U.S. Supreme Court decisions from at least the last 13 years. The guidance speaks to the discord between anti-discrimination laws and religious liberties, but beyond including examples of how the courts have “analyzed them,” it doesn’t address whether one takes precedence over the other.

The agency’s leadership panel voted 3-2 to approve the updates. The Democratic members of the ...