Supreme Court Leans Toward Catholic Charity in Tax Case

The Supreme Court on Monday seemed ready to rule that a Catholic charity in Wisconsin was entitled to a tax exemption that had been denied by a state court on the grounds that its activities were not primarily religious.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court had ruled that the group’s activities were “primarily charitable and secular” and that it did not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith.” For those reasons, the state court found the group should be denied the exemption even as it accepted the charity’s contention that its services were “based on Gospel values and the principles of the Catholic social teachings.”

Those distinctions troubled justices across the ideological spectrum.

“Some religions proselytize,” Justice Elena Kagan said Monday. “Other religions don’t. Why are we treating some religions better than others based on that element of religious doctrine?”

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch echoed the point. “Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions,” he said. He added, “Doesn’t it entangle the state tremendously when it has to go into a soup kitchen, send an inspector in, to see how much prayer is going on?”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked a lawyer for the state what the charity would have to do to, at a minimum, to qualify for the exemption.

The lawyer, Colin T. Roth, said one possibility was saying the Lord’s Prayer when the charity provides soup.