Supreme Court appears to favor Catholic charities group's quest for state unemployment tax exemption
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared to side with a group of Catholic charities in northern Wisconsin that sought a religious exemption from the state’s unemployment tax. (Photo from Shutterstock)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared to side with a group of Catholic charities in northern Wisconsin that sought a religious exemption from the state’s unemployment tax.
During oral arguments, the justices appeared to support the idea that Catholic Charities Bureau and its subsidiary entities were entitled to the same exemption that Wisconsin provides to churches, religious schools and groups operated primarily for religious purposes, report SCOTUSblog, Law360, Reuters, the Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
“Less certain,” the Washington Post reported, “was how the justices would resolve the specifics of the case.”
At issue is whether Wisconsin violated the First Amendment’s religion clauses by denying the exemptions to the charitable arm of a religion, according to an ABA Journal preview of the case. The religion clauses provide for free exercise of religion and prohibit laws establishing a religion.
The Catholic Charities Bureau entities that sought the exemption provide services for people who have disabilities, are elderly and are poor. They do not proselytize. The state law governing the exemption says the tax doesn’t have to be paid by “an organization operated primarily for religious purposes.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the Catholic Charities Bureau entities were not entitled to the exemption because their activities are primarily secular in nature, and they do not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith.”
Justices “from both sides of the ideological spectrum” raised concerns about discrimination against the Catholic Charities Bureau, SCOTUSblog reported.
According to the Washington Post, liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch “emphasized that courts should not be in the business of second-guessing which activities count as inherently religious. They suggested that the state had impermissibly discriminated based on religion when it denied the exemption, in part because employees of the nonprofit do not proselytize or require prayer as part of their community service.”
“Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions?” Gorsuch asked.
“I thought it was pretty fundamental that we don’t treat some religions better than other religions,” Kagan said. “And we certainly don’t do it based on the content of the religious doctrine that those religions preach.”
The Catholic Charities Bureau is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit public interest law firm.
The case is Catholic Charities Bureau Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission.
The Catholic Charities Bureau merits brief is here.
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