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Sherbert V
Sherbert V
Verner
A woman belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist Church was fired by her
employer because she would not work on Saturday, the Sabbath day of her faith. In
seeking employment she refused to accept any job involving Saturday work. She
filed for unemployment compensation in South Carolina. However, the Employment
Security Commission there found her to be disqualified from benefits for failure
without good cause to accept suitable work when offered.
The Supreme Court held that the disqualification clearly imposed a burden on
the free exercise of her religion since the Commissions ruling forces her to choose
between following the precepts of her religion and forfeiting benefits, on the one
hand, and abandoning one of the precepts of her religion in order to accept work, on
the other hand. The Court said that the state had not proved as compelling an
interest for this requirement as they had for the requirement in Braunfeld (i.e. the
Sunday closing laws were justified by a need to provide a uniform day of rest for
workers, despite some indirect effect on orthodox Jewish merchants).