US Supreme Court: Wisconsin violated the first amendment by deny

The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that Wisconsin’s state violated the first amendment by denying a tax exemption to a Catholic charity after stating that the charitable activities of the group were not “mainly” religious.

The first amendment of the US Constitution protects the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

The highest court in the North American country indicated in its Decision of this Thursday June 5 that the first amendment “demands government neutrality between religions” and that the State had violated that principle when it refused to extend the exemption of taxes to the Office of Catholic Carities operated from the Diocese of Superior.

The State allows organizations that operate mainly for religious purposes are exempt from quoting the state unemployment system.

However, the Wisconsin Labor and Industrial Review Commission claimed that the Catholic charity organization did not mainly operate for religious purposes, since it offers charitable services to people of all confessions and does not focus their efforts on converting Catholicism to the people it serves.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court failed last March against the Catholic charity organization. However, this Thursday revoked that order unanimously.

“It is essential for our constitutional order that the government maintains’ neutrality between religions,” wrote Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the ruling. “There may be difficult decisions to make to apply this standard, but this is not.”

“When the government distinguishes between religions based on theological differences in its provision of services, it imposes a denominational preference that must satisfy the highest level of judicial scrutiny,” he said.

“Because Wisconsin has transgressed that principle without the necessary adaptation to survive such scrutiny, the sentence of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin is revoked,” he said.

The case “is returned for additional procedures that are not incompatible with this opinion,” added Sotomayor.

In a concurrent opinion, Judge Clarence Thomas said that the Catholic charity is not a “different organization” separated from the diocese of superior where it is located.

The beneficial organization and its affiliates “are corporate entities that the diocese has created to carry out its religious mission,” Thomas wrote.

“Both the basic principles of the autonomy of the Church and the history of religious corporations establish that religious institutions are more than the corporate entities they form,” he said.

“It follows that the government cannot use these entities as a means to regulate the internal governance of religious institutions,” he wrote.

The bishop of the Diocese of Superior, Mons. James Powers, said Thursday that “the heart of the Ministry of Catholic Carities is the call of Christ to take care of the little ones of our brothers and sisters, without condition and without exception.”

“We are grateful that the court has unanimously recognized that improving the human condition serving the poor is part of our religious exercise and has allowed us to continue serving those in need in our diocese and beyond,” added the prelate.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA