At issue in both cases is the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, which set the “de minimis” standard for religious accommodations under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Courts and employers will have to take the statute more seriously if the employees win either of these cases, said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, who filed a brief on behalf of legal scholars urging the high court to take the cases. Hardison “took all the teeth” out of the protections for religious workers, he said.