Last week, the United States Supreme Court announced it would review a case against Abercrombie & Fitch stemming from a complaint of religious discrimination in Oklahoma. The week prior marked the one-year anniversary of the successful resolution of our California-based lawsuit against the company. Our office represented Hani Khan, a Bay Area native who was fired from her job at an Abercrombie location for refusing to remove her hijab.
Hani was fired in 2010, and was told explicitly that it was because of her headscarf. Brave as she is, Hani challenged the firing when it happened, came to CAIR-SFBA and the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center for help, and then committed herself to what turned into a multi-year battle. We worked together to utilize the courts, media and public opinion to push back against Abercrombie’s state and federal law violations.
Three years later, in September 2013, we won a summary judgment decision in U.S. District Court against the company. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed that Abercrombie had violated the law, and that they had failed to submit any admissible evidence that permitting an employee to wear a hijab would negatively impact their brand or sales.
Less than two weeks before trial was set to begin, the company finally agreed to settle the case. Among other things, the settlement included monetary damages for Hani, policy changes at the company, and — our favorite — three years of court-enforced monitoring. Abercrombie committed to reporting every six months, for three years, how many job applicants sought religious accommodations and whether or not they were granted.
We received our second compliance report on the anniversary of the settlement. In total, Abercrombie has hired three employees in the last year who have been provided accommodations for religious head coverings. It is slow but promising progress. Read their reports: here and here. Stay tuned as we follow the Oklahoma case, which, though it will not impact our victory, we hope will be helped by it.