WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A new survey by the Pew Research Center Center examined how voters of different religious identities say they plan to vote in the upcoming election.
Advocates expressed concern that most SNAP ‘skimming’ victims will no longer get stolen benefits back if Congress doesn’t take action by Sept. 30. And Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission advocating for the Catholic charity in its dispute with the state commission.
Study examines religious voters and the 2024 race
Vice President Kamala Harris widened her lead over former president Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the pair’s Sept. 10 debate, with 47% of registered voters who responded they would vote for her if the election were held today, compared to 42% who said they would vote for Trump.
But a survey by the Pew Research Center — conducted Aug. 26- Sept. 2, prior to the debate — found Protestant and Catholic voters more likely to support Trump; however, that changed when divided by race.
Among all registered Catholic voters surveyed, 52% said they would support Trump, while 47% said they would support Harris.
But the partisan divide jumped when divided by race. White Catholics said they would support Trump 61% to 38%, while Hispanic Catholics said they would support Harris 65% to 34%.
Pew’s survey differed from a recent EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research survey of Catholic U.S. voters — conducted Aug. 28-30, also prior to the debate — which found 50% of Catholic voters plan to support Harris for president, while 43% said they planned to support Trump, with another 6% undecided. But there were more parallels between the surveys among Hispanic Catholics, with 59% in the EWTN survey saying they plan to support Harris, while 30% plan to support Trump.
When undecided Catholic voters were asked which candidate they lean toward, Harris’ overall support increased to 54%, and Trump to 45% in the EWTN survey.
Congress faces SNAP deadline
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a December 2022 law passed by Congress to protect and replace SNAP benefits stolen via card skimming or other similar methods requires states to replace such benefits for victims for funds stolen between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2024. That law permits states to use federal funds to provide these replacements in accordance with the states’ individual rules and procedures.
But prospects look dim for a standalone measure as Congress seeks to avert a looming government shutdown.
After returning from their August recess, Congress has until the end of September to fund the government, making a short-term measure necessary to avert a government shutdown. But House Republicans’ attempt to do so was delayed when their measure could not garner sufficient support to pass.
The White House sent a letter to lawmakers opposing House Republicans’ version of the appropriations bill. Among their points of objection, the White House said it fails “to protect nutritional assistance for vulnerable families whose benefits are stolen.”
The New York Times reported earlier this year scammers were targeting the funds distributed to low-income households intended to aid them in purchasing necessary food items.
Protestant ministry files brief in support of Catholic Charities case
Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, in which the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, asked the high court in August to overturn a previous decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court the agency claimed discounted its religious identity.
“Government has no business second-guessing a faith organization’s purpose,” John Bursch, ADF senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy, said in a statement. “To do so would unconstitutionally entangle church and state — all at the expense of ministries that live out their faith, at least in part, through serving their communities.”
“Under the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s test, government officials will inevitably favor religious views and activities they are familiar with, while excluding those that are either unfamiliar or disfavored,” he added. “Just because Catholic Charities serves a diverse range of people outside its congregation doesn’t mean that its outreach efforts of providing for the elderly, people with disabilities, and those in poverty qualify as ‘secular’ activities. We are urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse this ruling that strikes at the very core of the First Amendment.”
ADF attorneys filed the brief on behalf of By the Hand Club for Kids, a ministry affiliated with The Moody Church in Chicago, that asked the high court to intervene for the Catholic charity, arguing the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling created an unconstitutional test of the sincerity of religious ministry.
Noting that the state supreme court found that the Catholic Charities Bureau was not eligible for an exemption because it does not limit its employment or service to Catholics alone, the brief stated that “a Baptist church that does the same charity work but limits its operation to fellow Baptists would, under the majority’s test, qualify for the tax exemption.”
“If one religious group gets a tax exemption and another one does not — even though both do the same work with the same motivation — then the First Amendment is violated,” the brief said of the state Supreme Court’s ruling.
The Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, asked the U.S. Supreme Court Aug. 9 to overturn a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court finding the agency is not exempt from paying into the state’s unemployment insurance system because its operations aren’t primarily religious under the statute.
Wisconsin law states religious employers in the Badger State are eligible for an exemption from its state unemployment benefit program if they operate primarily for religious purposes, the Catholic Charities Bureau argued. The state argued, however, that the Catholic Charities Bureau does not meet that standard.
The Catholic Charities Bureau is seeking an exemption so that it can participate in an alternate program, the Church Unemployment Pay Program, established by the Wisconsin bishops in 1986, according to its court filings. They argued the church’s program provides the same level of benefits to unemployed individuals as the state’s system but calls their program “more efficient.”
