In a brief order, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the charity’s appeal that the denial violates the First Amendment’s religious protections.
“Put another way, it doesn’t matter if Catholic Charities gives a cup of water in Jesus’ name, because non-religious charities offer cups of water too,” the group wrote in its petition. “That absurd result deepens a split between state courts that require religious entities to conform to stereotypes to qualify for the ‘religious purposes’ exemption and those that do not.”
Catholic Charities Bureau, the charitable arm of the Diocese of Superior, is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The nonprofit regularly brings religion cases before the high court and has won eight cases since 2012.
Wisconsin urged the justices to let stand a ruling from the state’s top court upholding the exemption denial, pushing back on the charity’s assertion that the decision deepened a split among courts nationwide on how to assess whether a group has a religious purpose.
“All courts look to some degree at the operations of the group seeking an exemption; none simply grant the exemption solely based on the group’s assertion that its activities are religiously motivated,” the state wrote in court filings.
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