On Friday, December 13, 2024, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case of Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission, an appeal from a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that this religious employer isn’t exempt from unemployment taxes (details here).
Vox thinks the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Catholic charities employer (see story here). That’s not just idle speculation; the 6 conservative justices, all of whom are Catholics, have been bending over backwards in favor of religious preferences.
What would this mean for employees of religious employers? Who, after all, are motivated by the need to make a living and are working for the paychecks? No unemployment taxes means no unemployment benefits if they’re laid off or arbitrarily fired.
How much farther might the Supreme Court go, in future rulings, to deny employees of churches and religious groups basic employee rights and benefits? Does “religious freedom” trump (pun intended) all worker protections? A court that denies these workers unemployment insurance might deprive them of other worker rights, too.
Maybe the theory is you voluntarily surrender all your normal rights by agreeing to do God’s work. In which case, how would the Supreme Court rule if a religious employer asserted a “religious liberty” prerogative to beat their employees? Or nail them to a cross for missing work or screwing up?
Maybe they won’t be joking when they announce, “The beatings will continue until morale improves around here.” It just does seem that Jesus’ teachings somehow get lost and forgotten in all this.
