A gaggle of Catholic Church-affiliated charities believes their religious exemptions from a state tax have been unfairly revoked after they were deemed not religious enough, and it appears the U.S. Supreme Court is sympathetic to its case.
The groups involved within the ruling are Headwaters, Barron County Developmental Services, Diversified Services, and Black River Industries. The group are all meant to supply services to individuals with developmental disabilities, and are open to non-Catholics.
They’re arguing that their First Amendment rights to free exercise have been violated by the state of Wisconsin.
In an earlier ruling, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the groups, which operate under the authority of the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior weren’t religious enough to warrant tax exemption, NBC News reports.
On Monday, the Supreme Court Justices gave their oral arguments and appeared to agree with the charities’ arguments.
“I assumed it was pretty fundamental that we do not treat some religions higher than other religions,” Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, said.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed, asking rhetorically if it “is not a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state should not be picking and selecting between religions.”
Central to the talk is whether or not or not Wisconsin’s tests for exemption is just too focused on the particulars of how religious faiths operate.
Under Wisconsin law, religious groups that proselytize would qualify for an exemption — like Protestant churches — but Catholic churches, which don’t proselytize nearly as much, may not.
Gorsuch pointed to soup kitchens — which are sometimes run by religious organizations and supply food to the needy — and asked in the event that they would require inspection before they’d qualify under Wisconsin’s laws.
“Doesn’t it entangle the state tremendously when it has to go right into a soup kitchen, send an inspector in, to see how much prayer is occurring?” he asked.
Wisconsin’s Labor and Industry Review Commission ruled that the groups involved within the case weren’t “operated primarily for religious purposes” under the state’s laws.
Last yr, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state commission’s decision, offering its opinion on the time that the groups’ activities were mostly secular in nature and that they don’t “try and imbue program participants with the Catholic faith nor supply any religious materials.”
Wisconsin wants the groups to pay taxes that fund the state’s unemployment compensation fund, which goals to supply a security net for unemployed individuals.
Other Catholic charities have backed the group’s case, fearing that a ruling in favor of Wisconsin’s state laws could have wide-ranging effects on the tax exempt status of religious-affiliated organizations, including hospitals.
A call within the case is predicted by the top of June.
