In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Catholic Charities organization in Wisconsin doesn’t have to take part in the Wisconsin unemployment insurance (UI) system.
The ruling rejected a Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion that said the agency’s purpose was essentially secular and didn’t qualify for a religious exemption in state unemployment law.
Advocates who supported Catholic Charities cheered the ruling as a blow for religious liberty and against attempts to define whether or not an organization’s motives are sufficiently rooted in faith.
“We have maintained throughout the process and in an amicus brief that Catholic Charities is in fact a religious institution and is eligible for the unemployment insurance tax exemption offered by the state law,” said David Earleywine, associate director for education and religious liberty at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.
Organizations that represent workers, however, have raised questions about the decision’s broader implications for employees of other institutions connected to churches, including the large networks of Catholic hospitals across the U.S.
“It is crucial that employees, especially low-wage workers, have the protections of unemployment insurance, regardless of the identity of their employer,” said Larry Dupuis, director of litigation and advocacy at Legal Action of Wisconsin. The law firm joined with groups including the Economic Policy Institute, the Century Foundation and the National...
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