SCOTUS rules that Catholic Charities is a religious organization

On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court rendered a major victory for religious freedom in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission.

In a unanimous judgment authored by Justice Sotomayor, with concurrences by Justices Thomas and Jackson, the Court reversed an earlier order in favor of Wisconsin. The Justices reasoned that Wisconsin violated Catholic Charities’ First Amendment rights in denying it a tax exemption on the basis that the services it provided were not primarily religious because their employees “‘do not proselytize or serve only Catholics’ in the course of performing charitable work.”