Five Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife employees received religious exemptions from the State’ COVID-19 vaccination requirement. The Department concluded they could not remain in their existing positions but offered them an opportunity to participate in a reassignment process. That process resulted in reassignment only 14 percent of the time, and employees were terminated if they did not complete the process.
The employees sued under Title VII, among other theories, alleging failure to reasonably accommodate their religious beliefs. The U.S. District Court granted summary judgment to the Department, reasoning that offering the reassignment process satisfied its accommodation obligation and that the employees failed to sufficiently participate in that process.
The Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment on most of the Title VII claims. Merely offering a process that provides only a limited possibility of reassignment is not necessarily a reasonable accommodation. An employer must make a good faith effort to offer an accommodation that actually eliminates the religious conflict and reasonably preserves the employee’s employment status. An employee’s duty to cooperate is triggered only after the employer makes an initial offer of a reasonable accommodation.
Since factual questions remained regarding whether the Department actually offered a reasonable accommodation, the Ninth Circuit remanded for further proceedings.
Cherry v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 25-4763 (9th Cir. 2026)