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by Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner March 14, 2024 In a 4-3 opinion issued Thursday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a Wisconsin Catholic Charities organization and four nonprofits affiliated with the agency can’t bow out of the Wisconsin unemployment insurance system on religious grounds. The 50-page opinion rejects the argument made by Catholic Charities Bureau Inc. (CCB) for the Superior Diocese of the Catholic Church that the charity and its subsidiary nonprofits provide social services as a fundamentally religious act. That would make their employees exempt from coverage under the Wisconsin unemployment compensation law, CCB asserted. “An objective examination of the actual activities of CCB and the sub-entities reveals that their activities are secular in nature,” wrote Justice Ann Walsh Bradley for the four-member majority, all from the Court’s liberal wing. That evaluation, she added, results from “a neutral and secular inquiry based on objective criteria.” Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley wrote a 73-page dissent declaring the majority opinion a “misinterpretation of the exemption” that violates both the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection of religious freedom and the Wisconsin Constitution. “An examination of the statute’s language unencumbered by the majority’s policy agenda shows Catholic Charities are operated for religious purposes […]