WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation today released the following statement from Jack Fitzhenry, a legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, praising the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission to rebuke Wisconsin’s efforts to deny a tax exemption to a Christian nonprofit: 

“It is heartening to see that the Supreme Court swiftly and unanimously rejected Wisconsin’s weak justifications for the state’s effort to deprive religious charitable works of their religious character—an effort that clearly discriminated against faiths. Lower courts must take note that First Amendment rights of religion cannot be so easily undercut by hostile state actors.”

The Heritage Foundation has defended religious freedom for decades. Heritage believes religious freedom is more than the “freedom to worship” at a synagogue, church, or mosque. It means people shouldn’t have to go against their core values and beliefs in order to conform to culture or government. 

Religious freedom protects people’s right to live, speak, and act according to their beliefs peacefully and publicly.