Frazee v. Illinois Department Of Employment Security

489 U.S. 829 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P refused a temporary retail position offered him because the job would have required him to work on Sunday. P told Kelly that, as a Christian, he could not work on 'the Lord's day.'

P applied to D for unemployment benefits claiming that there was good cause for his refusal to work on Sunday. D denied P's application. The Board of Review also denied his claim. The Board of Review stated: 'When a refusal of work is based on religious convictions, the refusal must be based upon some tenets or dogma accepted by the individual of some church, sect, or denomination, and such a refusal based solely on an individual's personal belief is personal and non-compelling and does not render the work unsuitable.' The Circuit Court affirmed, finding that D's decision was 'not contrary to law nor against the manifest weight of the evidence.' The Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed. It held that unlike the claimants in Sherbert, Thomas, and Hobbie, P was not a member of an established religious sect or church, nor did he claim that his refusal to work resulted from a 'tenet, belief or teaching of an established religious body.' That P was 'a Christian' who felt it wrong to work on Sunday was not enough. For a Free Exercise Clause claim to succeed, 'the injunction against Sunday labor must be found in a tenet or dogma of an established religious sect. P does not profess to be a member of any such sect.' The Supreme Court granted certiorari.