CV NEWS FEED // On March 14, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in a 4-3 vote to uphold a lower court’s decision to deny Catholic Charities’ request for exemption from the state’s unemployment benefit program.
In the case, Catholic Charities Bureau argued that they are exempt from the state’s Unemployment Compensation Act because they are operated primarily for religious purposes.
The State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission contends that the organization’s activities, not its motivations, are a more important factor in the analysis and that the bureau’s activities are secular, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said in the majority opinion.
Bradley said that the justices have to examine both the motivations and the activities of the organization. The justices found that Catholic Charities Bureau is not operated primarily for religious purposes, as defined by Wisconsin Statute 108.02(15)(h)2.
“We further conclude that the application of § 108.02(15)(h)2. as applied to the petitioners does not violate the First Amendment because the petitioners have failed to demonstrate that the statute as applied to them is unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt,” Bradley said in the opinion.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which served as counsel in the case, said in a case summary on its website that the Diocese of Superior created and operates the Catholic Charities Bureau to help fulfill its religious obligation to care for the needy, including people with disabilities, the elderly and people in poverty.
Additionally, Catholic Charities Bureau is under the control of the bishop. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Wisconsin’s appellate court’s decision to force Catholic Charities Bureau to pay into the state’s unemployment compensation system, “thus denying Catholic Charities the ability to join the Wisconsin Catholic Church’s own, more efficient, unemployment compensation system,” the Becket case summary reads.
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court got this case dead wrong. Catholic Charities is religious, whether Wisconsin recognizes that fact or not,” Becket’s Vice President and Senior Counsel Eric Rassbach said in a statement that Catholic Vote received March 14. “We plan to appeal this decision to the United States Supreme Court to protect Catholic Charities’ good deeds.”
