Catholic charity puts its case to US Supreme Court in religious exemption dispute

John Lavenburg/Crux• January 29, 2025

A Catholic charitable organisation in Wisconsin has argued to the US Supreme Court that the denial of its religious exemption status by the State of Wisconsin is based on an “absurd view” that the charity’s work isn’t religious in nature.

The Catholic charity also claims that the defendant in the case – Wisconsin – has committed multiple violations of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment by denying its religious-based exemption and thereby insisting that it must pay state-related fees.

In the legal case of Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission, the Catholic Charities Bureau branch of the Diocese of Superior is fighting a State Supreme Court ruling from March 2024 that the organisation’s activities aren’t primarily religious, thereby denying it an exemption from paying into the State’s unemployment compensation program, and preventing it from joining the Wisconsin Bishops’ own unemployment compensation program.

The Catholic Charities Bureau petitioned to the US Supreme Court in August 2024, and the nation’s high court agreed to hear the case in December. The charitable organisation submitted a Merits Brief on 27 January, wherein it laid out its interpretation of how the State of Wisconsin violated the US Constitution.

“Wisconsin has denied Catholic Charities a religious exemption that the state freely extends to other religious organisations based on the absurd view that Catholic Charities’ aid to the needy isn’t actually religious at all,” the brief says. “The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment do not allow such a remarkable conclusion.”

“Instead, the Clauses work in tandem to protect a sphere of autonomy for religious organisations, to prevent entanglement of Church and State, and to prohibit government discrimination among religious organisations,” the brief continues. “Wisconsin’s efforts to pick and choose among religious groups – and carve out works of mercy from the realm of the ‘religious’ altogether – thus violates the Constitution three times over.”

Under Wisconsin law, as is the case in most US States, churches and nonprofits that are operated for a religious purpose are generally exempt from paying into the state’s unemployment compensation program. For instance, the Diocese of Superior is exempt.

However, the diocese’s Catholic Charities Bureau is not. As outlined in the Merits Brief, that is because “under Wisconsin law, as definitively interpreted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Catholic Charities must show that its activities are sufficiently similar ‘in nature’ to whatever the state determines to be ‘typical’ religious activities”.

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in March 2024, the majority ruled that while the Catholic Charities Bureau’s work to help those in need may stem from Catholic teaching, it nevertheless comprises secular work. The decision affirmed that of a lower court from a year earlier.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote for the 4-3 majority: “In other words, they offer services that would be the same regardless of the motivation of the provider, a strong indication that the sub-entities do not ‘operate primarily for religious purposes’.”

As examples of Catholic Charities Bureau’s supposed secular nature, the majority opinion goes on to highlight that employment with the organisation and services offered by the organisation are open to all regardless of religion, and that the organisation does not proselytise, or conduct worship services, religious outreach or religious education.

The ruling didn’t just deny the Catholic Charities Bureau an exemption from paying into the State’s unemployment compensation program, but also prevented it from joining the Wisconsin bishops’ own unemployment compensation program.

Catholic Charities Bureau is a registered nonprofit organisation in Wisconsin and the social ministry arm of the Diocese of Superior, which contains over 75,000 Catholics and covers about 15,000 square miles in northern Wisconsin. The organisation has been operating since 1917.

The work of Catholic Charities Bureau in the Diocese of Superior mirrors that of other Catholic Charities Bureau branches nationwide, hence the potential significance of this case and the ultimate ruling by the US Supreme Court. The Wisconsin branch, according to its website, helps local people with life-skills education, vocations and employment, housing, infant development, in-home nursing services and independent living assistance.

“Catholic Charities Bureau answers Christ’s call to minister to the most vulnerable by caring for the poor, disabled and elderly throughout the diocese and beyond,” Bishop James Powers of the Diocese of Superior said in a 27 January statement. “We pray the Court recognises that this vital work of improving the human condition lies at the heart of our duty as Catholics.”

The deadline to file an amicus brief – a legal document submitted to a court by a person or organisation that is not a party in the case – in support of the Catholic Charities Bureau is 3 February 2025. The Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission then has until 26 February to file its response to the Merits Brief submitted on 27 January. Representatives for the Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission did not respond to a Crux request for comment.

The most recent amicus brief filed came from the World Faith Foundation on 28 January, which stated that the Supreme Court should reverse the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling because “Wisconsin has egregiously violated the doctrine of Church autonomy by improperly entangling itself in religious questions about the nature of Catholic Charities Bureau’s activities”.

Organisations of different faiths, alongside various scholars and individuals, have filed similar arguments. These include religious liberty scholars, the Catholic Conferences of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota; the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, and the Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Sikh Coalition.

The Wisconsin State Legislature also filed a brief on 12 September, arguing that the court shouldn’t decide the merits of an organisation or entity receiving a religious exemption.

“The Legislature granted a religious exemption, and the court may not rewrite it – especially not in a way that violates religious organisations’ First Amendment rights,” the legislature argued.

Photo: People attend the annual March for Life rally near the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, DC, 24 January 2025. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images.)