Unanimously, the Court said that the organization is exempt in Wisconsin from unemployment taxes.
By Catholics for Catholics
In a victory for Catholic Charities, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled with one voice that Wisconsin had violated the First Amendment by failing to grant the organization an exemption from paying unemployment tax.
A non-profit organization, Catholic Charities Bureau operates as a part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. The organization manages other groups that provide charitable services to communities across the state, according to The Epoch Times.
The 9–0 opinion in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor wrote: “The First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religions and subjects any state-sponsored denominational preference to strict scrutiny. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of [the state statute] imposed a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines. Because the law’s application does not survive strict scrutiny, it cannot stand.”
By law, Wisconsin exempts religious organizations that are “operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches” from paying state unemployment tax. According to The Times, Catholic Charities argued that it is unconstitutional that the state decides what work is religious in nature.
“The First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religions and subjects any state-sponsored denominational preference to strict scrutiny. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of [the state statute] imposed a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines. Because the law’s application does not survive strict scrutiny, it cannot stand,” Sotomayor wrote.
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