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Supreme Court sides with Catholic Charities in WI unemployment taxes case

By and Lindsay Whitehurst
Published  June 5, 2025 10:54am CDT
Supreme Court
Associated Press
article

The Brief

    • The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Catholic Charities Bureau is exempt from paying Wisconsin unemployment taxes.
    • Catholic Charities argued that its disability services are religiously motivated and that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment by not granting an exemption similar to those given to other faith groups.
    • Wisconsin contended that the organization didn't qualify for the exemption because its daily operations are not inherently religious.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Thursday, June 5, that a Catholic charity doesn’t have to pay Wisconsin unemployment taxes, one of a set of religious-rights cases the justices are considering this term.

Ruling

What we know:

The unanimous ruling comes in a case filed by the Catholic Charities Bureau, which says the state violated the First Amendment’s religious freedom guarantee when it required the organization to pay the tax while exempting other faith groups.

Wisconsin argues the organization has paid the tax for over 50 years and doesn’t qualify for an exemption because its day-to-day work doesn’t involve religious teachings. Much of the groups’ funding is from public money, and neither employees nor people receiving services have to belong to any faith, according to court papers.

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Catholic Charities, though, says it qualifies because its disability services are motivated by religious beliefs and the state shouldn’t be making determinations about what work qualifies as religious. It appealed to the Supreme Court after Wisconsin’s highest court ruled against it. President Donald Trump's administration weighed in on behalf of Catholic Charites.

Wisconsin has said that a decision in favor of the charity could open the door to big employers like religiously affiliated hospitals pulling out of the state unemployment system as well.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 5: A person rests in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. The high court is slated to issue opinions on high-profile cases in the coming weeks as their term ends. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Image

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Big picture view:

The conservative-majority court has issued a string of decisions siding with churches and religious plaintiffs in recent years. This term, though, a plan to establish a publicly funded Catholic charter school lost after when the justices deadlocked after Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.

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What's next:

The nine-member court is also considering a case over religious objections to books read in public schools. In those arguments, the majority appeared sympathetic to the religious rights of parents in Maryland who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.

The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Supreme CourtReligionPoliticsWisconsin