As previously reported, in June in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court, held that Wisconsin engaged in unconstitutional theological discrimination when its Supreme Court held that Catholic Charities Bureau does not qualify for the exemption from unemployment compensation tax that is granted by state statute to nonprofits "operated primarily for religious purposes." The Court remanded the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for it to issue a remedial order. In a Remedial Brief (full text) filed on October 20 in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the state argued that the unconstitutional discrimination can be remedied by either expanding the exemption to cover organizations like Catholic Charities, or by eliminating the exemption for all religious organizations. The brief argues in part:
Two sources indicate a strong legislative preference for restoring equal treatment by eliminating this discriminatory exemption. First, the Legislature prefers that courts sever invalid statutory provisions, a presumption that applies here given how the unemployment insurance system would function just as well without this exemption. Second, striking the exemption would better advance the Legislature’s express desire for broad unemployment insurance coverage.
Also on October 20, Catholic Charities filed a Supplemental Brief (full text) arguing that:
Wisconsin’s immodest proposal is wrong for at least ten reasons, each of which separately requires the Court to extend the religious exemption to Catholic Charities....
... Catholic Charities did not bring an Equal Protection Clause case, it brought a Religion Clauses case. Catholic Charities’ injury is not mere unequal treatment; it is having to pay a tax despite a statutory entitlement to an exemption from that tax. Indeed, Catholic Charities has sought its own relief from the tax—not to force other groups to pay the tax, too....
Nullifying the Legislature’s religious purposes exemption would create a church autonomy violation by dividing Catholic Charities from the Diocese of Superior....
Christian Post reports on these developments.
