SCOTUS Takes Up Catholic Charities’ First Amendment Case

Protect The 1st has followed the Catholic Charities v. Wisconsin litigation for more than two years. After many ups and downs in a case that asks what constitutes an activity deemed sufficiently religious to merit a state religious exemption, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the controversy.
 
Courts in Wisconsin have found that the Catholic Charities Bureau of Wisconsin does not qualify for a state religious exemption and must therefore contribute to the state’s unemployment system, instead of to a church-run system. Wisconsin courts base this conclusion on the flawed reasoning that Catholic Charities – which has provided aid to the disabled, the elderly, and the poor for over one hundred years – is not operated primarily for religious purposes because it provides services to people of all faiths.
 
Never mind the fact that, quoting the Becket Fund, “[the] requirement to serve everyone in need comes directly from Catholic social teaching and advances the Church’s religious mission through the corporal works of mercy.”
 
No activity violates the Establishment Clause more than one in which the government decides which religious practices qualify as religious, and hence protected, and which do not. Moreover, it’s simply bad policy to punish a group that offers free in-home health care, housing, and childcare services to people in need.
 
Then there’s the floodgates ramifications; if it does indeed become the job of government to decide which religious practices are religious, then we well and truly have cast the Constitution to the wind. The Catholics suffer now, but many other religious groups may soon find themselves at the pointy end of a bureaucratic spear.
 
Becket Fund senior counsel Eric Rassbach perhaps puts it best:
 
“Wisconsin is trying to make sure no good deed goes unpunished. Penalizing Catholic Charities for serving Catholics and non-Catholics alike is ridiculous and wrong. We are confident the Supreme Court will reject the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s absurd ruling.”
 
For more on the Catholic Charities case, you can read their certiorari petition here. Stay tuned for updates from Protect The 1st.

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