Christian, Gay Rights, and Jewish Groups Help Muslim in Head Scarf Case Against Abercrombie & Fitch; Win Likely After Supreme Court Oral Arguments By Napp Nazworth February 25, 2015 | 5:18 pm

Muslim woman Samantha Elauf (R), who was denied a sales job at an Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa in 2008, stands with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lead attorney Barbara Seely (C) at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, February 25, 2015. The Court on Wednesday considered whether Elauf, who wears a head scarf, or hijab, was required to specifically request a religious accommodation at her job interview at the store in Tulsa in 2008 when she was 17. The company denied Elauf the job on the grounds that wearing the scarf violated its "look policy" for members of the sales staff. If Wednesday's oral arguments are an indication, Abercrombie & Fitch will likely lose in a Supreme Court religious freedom case involving a Muslim job applicant wearing a head scarf. The case, EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch, has united a wide range of groups concerned about the religious freedom implications in the case. Christian, gay rights, Jewish and Muslim groups have all filed "friend of the court" briefs on the side of the Muslim job applicant. In a Wednesday interview with The Christian Post, Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who was at the oral arguments, said he was optimistic that the court would rule against Abercrombie & Fitch.

Samantha Elauf was 17 when she had a job interview with the clothing store chain in 2008. The interview was going well and the manager was ready to hire her. After checking with a senior manager, however, he told Elauf that he could not hire her because she was wearing a head scarf, garb often worn by Muslim women for religious purposes. Abercrombie has a strict dress code for its employees, which includes no head scarves and no black. Abercrombie & Fitch does not deny that Elauf was turned down for the job because of her head scarf. Instead, the company's lawyers argued that Elauf shouldn't be able to win a religious freedom complaint because she never expressly stated that she was wearing the head scarf for religious reasons. Baxter said that one of the most telling exchanges was between Justice Samuel Alito and the Abercrombie & Fitch lawyer. Would a Sikh man wearing a turban, a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke or a Catholic nun wearing a habit have to expressly state that they were wearing those garments for religious reasons? Alito asked, according to Baxter. The lawyer admitted they would not.