The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously reversed a decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that prevented a Catholic charity from receiving a religious tax exemption.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked Catholic Charities Bureau from an exemption to pay into the state’s unemployment compensation system, arguing the organization primarily does secular work.
Catholic Charities appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and a group of 19 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of the group’s case, the Center Square previously reported.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Wisconsin ruling Thursday.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court which said the Wisconsin court “imposed a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines,” which violated the First Amendment to the constitution.
First Liberty Institute, which filed a friend of the court brief in support of Catholic Charities, praised the ruling.
“Any attempt by the government to determine which religiously motivated actions are sufficiently religious enough to enjoy either constitutional protection or eligibility for a government benefit like tax exemption is ‘obnoxious to the Constitution,’” First Liberty Counsel Ryan Gardner said. “In our cases involving Dad’s Place church in Ohio, Rock Church in Colorado, and Gethsemani church in Arizona, the government has argued that the ministries at issue are not religious enough because, they claim, serving those in need is not a religious act. That’s ludicrous. We applaud the Justices for again affirming unanimously that the First Amendment guarantees the right of all Americans to engage in religious exercise defined by the manner dictated by their sincere religious beliefs rather than the government’s preferences.”
