Supreme Court Questions Wisconsin’s Denial of Religious Exemption for Catholic Charities
The U.S. Supreme Court has expressed doubts about Wisconsin state officials’ decision to deny a religious exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, arguing that the organization’s activities are too secular to justify such treatment.
The case, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor Review Commission et al, centers on whether a Christian charity should be exempt from the state unemployment insurance program despite performing primarily secular services. Representing the state, lawyer Colin Roth warned that granting this exemption based solely on the charity’s religious affiliation could lead to unforeseen consequences. He noted that exemptions are typically reserved for employers likely to involve the state in doctrinal disputes, whereas the petitioners’ approach did not impose such restrictions.
Roth emphasized that if the exemption were extended based solely on motive, it might leave more than one million employees across the nation—such as nurses and janitors working at religiously affiliated hospitals—with reduced unemployment coverage. The state maintains that benefit eligibility can be determined without engaging with religious doctrine in these cases.
Justice Elena Kagan challenged the state’s stance by arguing that all religions should be treated equally. She questioned whether Wisconsin could feasibly enact a law that awards tax exemptions only to groups that actively proselytize. When Roth indicated that this scenario was unlikely, Kagan observed that the current interpretation of the statute effectively favors religious organizations that promote their faith over those that do not.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised concerns about the impact on faiths like Judaism, which do not emphasize evangelism, wondering if Jewish nonprofits might be unfairly excluded from the exemption. Roth clarified that proselytization is merely one qualifier among several, including worship and religious education, and stressed that having a particular motive alone is insufficient for eligibility.
Justice Neil Gorsuch further questioned the distinction between programs by comparing organizations that require worship attendance before receiving aid with those that make such attendance optional. He queried whether Wisconsin would differentiate between a soup kitchen that mandates service attendance and one that extends a more relaxed invitation to join a service.
The Catholic Charities Bureau is an umbrella organization encompassing several charitable groups within the Roman Catholic Diocese based in Superior, Wisconsin. In 2016, the bureau requested an exemption from contributing to the state unemployment insurance program due to its religious ties. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development rejected this request, arguing that the organization’s activities are not predominantly religious. Although an administrative law judge later reversed the initial decision, a subsequent review by the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission again ruled against the exemption.
In a closely divided decision last March, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the Catholic Charities Bureau did not meet the definition of a religious entity and was therefore required to participate in the unemployment insurance program. The majority opinion, penned by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, stated that the bureau and its affiliated corporations—which are organized separately from the church—do not attempt to instill the Catholic faith among program participants, and an objective review of their activities revealed a secular nature.
In August, the bureau submitted a petition to the Supreme Court, arguing that having to pay into the program undermined its ability to support the impoverished and prevented it from joining the church’s own unemployment compensation system. The Supreme Court agreed to review the case, and oral arguments have been scheduled to resolve the conflicting interpretations.
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