The state of Wisconsin is attempting to eliminate a tax exemption for religious organizations after it failed at the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year when trying to block a Catholic charity from claiming that tax break.
In June 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States had unanimously ruled that the state violated the First Amendment when it denied a tax exemption to the Diocese of Superior’s Catholic Charities Bureau. The state had argued that the group’s charitable undertakings were not “primarily” religious and thus failed to qualify for the tax break. Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court had earlier ruled against the Catholic charity before the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision. But in an Oct. 21 press release, the religious liberty legal group Becket said that the state government is now asking the state Supreme Court to “eliminate the exemption entirely.”
“Rather than following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Wisconsin officials are now trying to avoid it by attacking the religious exemption itself…” the group said. “…If you eliminate the exemption, it doesn’t solve the constitutional problem, because the state has something like 40 other exemptions for secular groups. Union groups and organizations that do work in prisons are among the entities that have access to the exemption.”
Further details can be found here on the Catholic News Agency website.