Catholic Charities challenges ‘non-religious’ label at Supreme Court

Catholic Charities has spent more than a century caring for Wisconsin’s poor — but a state court says that work isn’t “religious” unless it involves preaching or proselytizing.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a First Amendment case brought by Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, which says it’s being penalized for living out its faith without preaching it. The group, which has served Wisconsin’s neediest for more than a century, is asking the justices to overturn a state court ruling that deemed its work “non-religious” — barring it from joining the Catholic Church’s unemployment insurance program.

Under Wisconsin law, religious nonprofit organizations can opt out of the state-run program and join a church-run alternative. But the state’s high court said Catholic

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