Religious freedom advocates are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling Thursday that Wisconsin can’t deny a tax exemption to a Catholic charity on the grounds that its work is secular in nature, which drew criticism from secularist groups.
Known as Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor Review Commission et al., the case centered on whether Wisconsin could force Catholic Charities Bureau to pay into the state’s unemployment insurance program.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the unanimous opinion, which reversed a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision and remanded the case to the lower court for further deliberation.
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“It is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion,'” wrote Sotomayor. “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.”
“When the government distinguishes among religions based on theological differences in their provision of services, it imposes a denominational preference that must satisfy the highest level of judicial scrutiny.”
Here are five reactions to the ruling.
