Abercrombie & Fitch Stores Inc. settled a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit charging religious discrimination. The clothing company paid $25,670 in damages to a Muslim job applicant and $18,983 in court costs. The settlement ends the case, which had gone to the Supreme Court.

The case involved Abercrombie’s refusal to hire Samantha Elauf, then a teenager who wore a headscarf or hijab as part of her Muslim faith. Elauf applied for a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Tulsa, Okla.  She was denied hire for failing to conform to the company’s “look policy,” which Abercrombie claimed banned head coverings. 

Elauf filed a charge with the EEOC in 2008, alleging religious discrimination, and the EEOC in 2009 filed suit against Abercrombie, charging that the company refused to hire Elauf due to her religion, and that it failed to accommodate her religious beliefs by making an exception to its “look policy” prohibiting head coverings.

The US Supreme Court on June 1 ruled the clothing company discriminated against Elauf and that an employer may not refuse to hire an applicant if the employer was motivated by avoiding the need to accommodate a religious practice. The case was sent back to the lower court for review, but the US Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed Abercrombie’s appeal of the EEOC’s case following the settlement.