The Supreme Court on Monday appeared sympathetic to the argument by a Catholic Charities chapter that Wisconsin violated the Constitution when it refused to give the group the same exemption from the state’s unemployment tax that it provides to churches,

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared sympathetic on Monday toward a bid by an arm of a Catholic diocese in Wisconsin for a religious exemption from the state's unemployment insurance tax in the latest religious rights case to reach the justices.

The Supreme Court seemed in broad agreement that a Catholic charity group should have been granted a religious exemption from Wisconsin's unemployment program despite the state's finding that the organization acted in a secular fashion.