The Second Circuit Just Made Your Accommodation Claim Harder
Updated: Sep 7
Read this one twice.
July 15, 2026
In Bergin v. New York State Unified Court System, the Second Circuit threw out its own long-standing test for religious accommodation claims and replaced it with one that requires proving the employer’s intent.
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): if you have a religious accommodation claim in the Second Circuit, the bar moved on 15 July 2026, and it moved against you.
In Bergin v. New York State Unified Court System, No. 25-721 (2d Cir. 15 July 2026), the court vacated a judgment that had gone the employee’s way and remanded. It held that the Supreme Court’s decision in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch abrogated the circuit’s prior failure-to-accommodate test. The new prima facie case requires a plaintiff to show she actually needed an accommodation, that the employer’s desire to avoid providing it was a motivating factor, and that she suffered an adverse action.
Read that middle element again. Intent is now yours to prove.
Applying it, the panel found the employee’s "bodily integrity" objection to the vaccination requirement was too vague to put the employer on notice at all. Panel: Judges Reena Raggi and Alison Nathan, with District Judge Jesse Furman sitting by designation; Nathan wrote. Below: E.D.N.Y., Judge Brian M. Cogan.
The lesson for anyone still in the pipeline is not subtle. Specificity in the original request is the whole ballgame. Vague sincerity is not a claim — it is a dismissal waiting for a docket number.
SOURCE LINKS
● Opinion (Second Circuit) — https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OPN/25-721_opn.pdf
● Littler, July 2026 appellate roundup — https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/littler-lightbulb-july-2026-employment-appellate-roundup
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