Last Thursday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled four to three that Wisconsin Catholic Charities, run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, are not operated primarily for a religious purpose and therefore are not exempt from participating in the state’s unemployment tax system. Justice Rebecca Bradley, voting with the minority, wrote a dissenting opinion, in which she said, the majority opinion requires, quote, “courts to determine what religious practices are sufficiently religious under the majority’s unconstitutional test.”
Wisconsin Family Council was part of a friend-of-the-court brief filed in this case. This decision is pure judicial activism. Having any court determine for a religious entity which of its purposes are sufficiently religious is so obviously in violation of the First Amendment.
