- Wisconsin is challenging a June SCOTUS ruling by seeking to eliminate a religious tax exemption instead of applying it to Catholic Charities, as the court ordered.
- The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty says the state’s move defies the unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision that recognized Catholic Charities as a religious organization.
- The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered additional briefing on whether the exemption should be removed. Becket has asked the court to stop the state’s attempt to circumvent the ruling.
- Becket argues that removing the exemption would harm all faith-based organizations in Wisconsin and undermine religious freedom protections.
The state of Wisconsin is attempting to eliminate a religious tax exemption in defiance of a June ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), which had ordered the state to consider Catholic Charities a religious organization and provide it with the exemption.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, one of the legal organizations representing the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, stated in an Oct. 21 news release that Wisconsin officials have asked the state’s Supreme Court to do away with the exemption, which would allow religious organizations to opt out of paying into the state’s unemployment compensation program.
According to Becket, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered further briefing on the state’s request to dismiss the exemption. Becket has asked the state Supreme Court to stop the state’s attempt to work around SCOTUS’ ruling.
“If permitted to eliminate the exemption entirely, Wisconsin would harm not only Catholic Charities but also churches, synagogues, mosques, and other ministries that depend on the same exemption,” Becket stated in the release.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Wisconsin had refused to let Catholic Charities qualify for the exemption, saying that it was not a religious organization. However, SCOTUS ruled that Wisconsin discriminated against Catholic Charities because of its religion and violated the First Amendment.
“It is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion,’” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the opinion, citing Epperson v. Arkansas, a landmark First Amendment case. “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.”
In the release, Becket Vice President and Senior Counsel Eric Rassbach called it “absurd” that Wisconsin is attempting “to wriggle out of a 9-0 loss.”
“Wisconsin’s bald-faced defiance of the Supreme Court is nothing short of remarkable,” he remarked. “Rather than accepting defeat, the state is now trying to punish all religious groups in Wisconsin, not just Catholic Charities. Doubling down on excluding religious people makes a mockery of both our legal system and religious freedom.”
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