Amicus Briefs
Catholic Charities Bureau, et al. v. State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission
CASE SUMMARY
NCLA urges the Wisconsin Supreme Court to provide a constitutionally sound remedy for the State’s unlawful religious discrimination against the Catholic Charities Bureau and its subsidiaries (the “Charities”).
Wisconsin’s statutes exempt certain employers from the unemployment compensation payroll taxes. The exemption issue in this case applies to organizations “operated primarily for religious purposes and operated, supervised, controlled or principally supported by a church…”. The Wisconsin Supreme Court previously held that churches do not operate organizations for a primarily religious purpose unless “both the motivations and the activities of the organization” are religious. Remarkably, it said this disqualified the Charities because they do not proselytize when providing critical assistance to the needy. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected what it called the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s “paradigmatic form of denominational discrimination.”
On remand, the State insists that the proper remedy for its unconstitutional behavior is not to put an end to the discrimination, but is instead to end the tax exemption for all organizations that are operated by churches for a religious purpose. That would violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s separation of powers by striking down a facially valid tax exemption and imposing new tax liabilities on institutions all over the state.