After receiving a demand letter from Liberty Counsel, the University of Florida (UF) granted a religious accommodation it had initially denied for an employee to take time off and fulfill his personal religious responsibilities at important religious functions.  The accommodation grants the employee’s requests to attend future religious functions and not to be subjected to any hostility or retaliation based on his religious observances.

In August 2025, the employee, who is a licensed minister and member of United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI), requested a religious accommodation for attending religious meetings during the UF’s Fall recruitment season. The time off was for the employee to attend the UPCI general conference to exercise his membership voting rights, receive teaching, and experience fellowship and spiritual renewal. Earlier in the year, UF administrators had granted the employee time off to attend a UPCI Scripture memorization program but attempted to rescind that approval. The employee attended the program and upon his return to work he had been suspended from UF training events and his religious accommodation for the UCPI general conference had been denied.

As the demand letter states, UF officials cited the employees’ time off would interfere with the “business needs of the office.” However, officials had granted time off for other employees during the recruitment season for occasions such as weddings and vacations.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Florida Civil Rights Act, employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees on the basis of their religious observance or from denying religious accommodations that do not impose an undue hardship on the employer. 

“UF’s willingness to grant personal time to employees for weddings and vacation in the same period of the year belies any claim of undue harm,” wrote Liberty Counsel. “Denying [the employee’s] request would violate Title VII and the FCRA.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The University of Florida made the right decision to reconsider and approve the religious accommodation for its employee’s religious observances.  Federal law requires employers to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs unless the employer can show that doing so will result in an undue hardship. There was simply no hardship in granting the time off for a religious observance when others were granted time off for personal reasons. People have the right to their religious observances.”