The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, on one of its last days of oral arguments for cases from the October 2024 term, in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission.
The case concerns the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s state unemployment tax exemption as applied to the work of the Catholic Charities Bureau. At issue is whether a state can determine for itself what qualifies as the “religious behavior” of an organization for purposes of granting or denying government benefits without violating the Constitution’s First Amendment free exercise and establishment clauses.
Apparent from the arguments and the strenuous questioning of Wisconsin’s assistant attorney general, the justices seem inclined to side with Catholic Charities and overturn the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling to the contrary.
Wisconsin exempts from…
