So what do you do if your company hires an engineer and on the first day they say "I am Amish and cannot touch a computer"? Give them a religions exemption? What then? Are you obligated to pay their salary for the rest of their life?

How would this person who hasn’t touched a computer for years, end up in the candidate pool for computer-using engineers?

Because he was hired when the company still used typewriters.

Who says they haven't touched a computer for years? There's no requirement for your beliefs to be consistent. Otherwise there wouldn't be a single religious person left in the world. You can interview on a computer and reveal your religious preferences on the first day of the job.

> There's no requirement for your beliefs to be consistent

I would bet money a judge would argue that inconsistent/arbitrary beliefs are in fact not "sincerely held" beliefs as defined under Title VII.

Also, SCOTUS made a ruling in 2023 that a business is allowed to take "undue hardship" into consideration for the company as a whole, meaning they can still fire (or not hire) you if your beliefs would be detrimental to the success of the business.

Yeah but you realize that religious exemptions aren’t just automatically rubber stamped? That employers can deny them on the basis of lack of sincerity? How realistic is it that someone can have a career with computers, and then on the first day of the job, prove that they’ve gone all-in on an anti-computer religion?

There are a lot of weird ways interviews are done. I wouldn't be surprised if someone's interview process didn't screen for is someone even an engineer.

Though nothing about the Amish prohibits being a computer using engineer. Their rejection of technology is a lot more nuanced.

You're missing a major component of the law:

> Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for an applicant or employee whose sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance conflicts with a work requirement, *unless providing the accommodation would create an undue hardship for the employer.*

If using a computer is necessary for the job, then the religious exemption would create undue hardship. Presumably for this Kentucky guy's job he can get his work done without AI and the university isn't suffering for it.

So all a company has to do is say "AI is necessary for the job" and the exemption no longer applies. Then why are we even having this discussion?

How would you possibly prove that AI is necessary for a job when someone has been doing the job successfully for years before AI?

Sounds like a tough argument to make to me

How would you possibly prove that AI is necessary for a job when someone has been doing the job successfully for years before AI?

Same for computers and engineering.

Let's say your company makes holes. The year is 2026 so you use excavators because they are good at digging holes quickly. Would you hire a guy who refuses to use an excavator but will happily use a shovel?

You filter out any such applicant with digital applications for digital postings requiring proficiency with digital tools.

Any such potential candidate passing these is then given an interview in which technical questions relevant to the question are asked.

I'm really not sure how you imagine a luddite makes it all the way to their first day to drop some weird "oh, I can't actually do this job btw" bomb.

Even supposing they do, they have a job description requiring that they perform certain tasks that are within the realm of reasonable expectations as set by the government.

Someone in a wheelchair isn't going to get hired for any "must be able to regularly lift and move weights over 50 pounds" job just because of equal employment opportunity as they can't perform the legally allowed requirements.

And what if someone decides to convert after starting the job?

They'd be found incapable of performing the tasks they agreed to perform in their contract.

You don't get to violate a contract just because you changed religions.

Read up on EEOC regulation and you'll see your example won't fly. Exceptions must be reasonable and not cause undue hardship on the employer.

"An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to unwillingly do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work." - https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination

Otherwise we would all be joining a religion which require 360 days of religious festivities each year.