New York Democrats just got a reality check they weren’t expecting.
The Supreme Court just threw them a curveball that could unravel their war on religious freedom.
And the nation’s highest court delivered a crushing blow that will have these goat-herding Anglican nuns erupting in celebration.
Supreme Court Orders New York to Reconsider Religious Exemptions
The Supreme Court on Monday sent shockwaves through Albany when it ordered a New York court to take another hard look at whether religious organizations should be forced to violate their deeply held beliefs.
The justices acted after the court unanimously ruled earlier in June that Wisconsin discriminated against a Catholic charity by forcing it to pay state unemployment taxes.
This latest move puts New York Democrats in an uncomfortable position as the Court directed the lower court to reconsider the case involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and other religious groups.
The New York case poses a similar issue because the state exempts religious employers if their purpose is to spread religious values and they primarily employ and serve people of their faith. But religious groups that serve and employ people regardless of their beliefs don’t qualify for the exemption.
In other words, New York is punishing religious organizations for actually living out their faith by serving everyone.
The state’s twisted logic means that a Catholic charity that helps the poor regardless of their religion gets treated worse than one that only helps Catholics.
Democrats Created a Rigged System Against Faith-Based Organizations
New York’s 2017 regulation requires most employer-provided health insurance plans to cover abortions.
A coalition of religious groups from a variety of denominations—including Roman Catholic dioceses, an order of goat-herding Anglican nuns, Baptist and Lutheran churches, and Catholic ministries—sued New York, arguing that the law forced them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs about the sanctity of life.
The religious exemption that New York created is a joke.
The rule adopted by New York’s Department of Financial Services exempts non-profit entities whose primary purpose is the "inculcation of religious values" and serving co-religionists.
This narrow exemption deliberately excludes faith-based organizations that serve the broader community.
Groups like Catholic Charities, which provide adoption services, run nursing homes for the elderly, and operate food pantries for anyone in need, don’t qualify for protection under New York’s discriminatory rule.
The Wisconsin Victory That Changes Everything
The Supreme Court’s unanimous June decision in the Wisconsin case created the legal precedent that’s now giving New York Democrats nightmares.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s interpretation of the state’s tax exemption amounted to religious discrimination by treating religious denominations unequally.
"A law that differentiates between religions along theological lines is textbook denominational discrimination," Sotomayor wrote.
The Wisconsin case involved Catholic Charities Bureau, which provides services to people with disabilities, the elderly, and low-income families regardless of their religious beliefs.
Wisconsin tried the same discriminatory game that New York is playing, claiming that because Catholic Charities serves everyone and doesn’t proselytize, it’s not really a religious organization.
The Supreme Court unanimously rejected that nonsense.
This is the Second Time the Supreme Court Has Slapped Down New York
It’s the second time the nation’s highest court has sent the case back to New York courts.
In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of Philadelphia could not refuse to place foster children with a Catholic agency that turned away same-sex couples as would-be foster parents, and then ordered the state courts to reconsider the case in light of that ruling.
But New York’s liberal judges ignored the Supreme Court’s guidance the first time.
The Court of Appeals said in Tuesday’s decision that the Supreme Court’s ruling did not change the outcome because it was narrowly focused on the facts of that case, and did not overturn the longstanding precedent that neutral, generally applicable laws can sometimes restrict religious expression.
Now the Supreme Court is giving New York another chance to get it right, armed with an even stronger precedent from the Wisconsin case.
Religious Organizations Face an Impossible Choice
The stakes couldn’t be higher for faith-based organizations across New York.
Unless they receive protection in court, these orders, ministries, and churches will either have to violate their deepest religious convictions and provide abortions, or eliminate their employees’ health insurance altogether, which would subject them to crippling fines totaling millions of dollars per year.
Among the groups challenging the mandate are the Sisterhood of St. Mary, an Anglican order of nuns who live a contemplative life, and the Carmelite Sisters who run a nursing home for the elderly and dying.
These religious women have dedicated their lives to serving God and helping others.
Now New York wants to force them to pay for procedures that violate everything they believe about the sanctity of life.
The Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority is Protecting Religious Freedom
The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of religious rights in a series of rulings in recent years.
The Wisconsin decision shows that even liberal justices like Sonia Sotomayor recognize when states cross the line into religious discrimination.
Eric Rassbach, the lead lawyer for Catholic Charities, said in a statement, "Wisconsin shouldn’t have picked this fight in the first place. It was always absurd to claim that Catholic Charities wasn’t religious because it helps everyone, no matter their religion."
The same logic applies to New York’s discriminatory system.
States cannot punish religious organizations for living out their faith through charitable works that serve the entire community.
New York Democrats Are Playing With Fire
This Supreme Court order is a warning shot to New York Democrats who think they can trample on religious freedom without consequences.
The Court’s recent track record shows it’s not going to tolerate states that create rigged systems designed to force religious organizations to violate their beliefs.
If New York’s courts don’t correct course this time, they may find themselves facing an even more definitive ruling from the Supreme Court.
The Constitution’s protection of religious freedom isn’t optional, and the Supreme Court is making sure states remember that fact.
