Split Wisconsin High Court Quashes Catholic Charities’ Tax Break

Catholic Charities Bureau Inc. and four of its subsidiaries must pay into the unemployment insurance system to cover their employees because they don’t qualify for Wisconsin’s religious purposes tax exemption, the state’s high court ruled 4-3 Thursday.

The charities provide job training and daily living services to people with disabilities. “Such services can be provided by organizations of either religious or secular motivations, and the services provided would not differ in any sense,” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote for the majority.

The majority rejected the charities’ First Amendment arguments against upholding the 2022 Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruling that denied ...