In the case of National Board of Young Men's Christian Associations v. United States, 1968, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the United States government. The YMCA had argued that it should be exempt from paying federal unemployment taxes under a provision in the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) which excludes "service performed...in the employ of a religious, charitable or educational organization." However, this argument was rejected by both lower courts and eventually by the Supreme Court as well. The court held that while individual YMCAs might qualify for tax exemption if they were primarily engaged in education or other qualifying activities at a local level; on a national level - where funds are used for administrative purposes rather than direct service - such an exemption did not apply. Therefore, despite its status as a non-profit organization with religious affiliations and objectives to promote health and education among young people nationwide through various programs and services; YMCA was still liable to pay federal unemployment taxes.

In the dissenting opinion for the case National Board of Young Men's Christian Associations v. United States, Justice Douglas argued that the YMCA was not a commercial enterprise and therefore should not be subject to antitrust laws. He believed that applying these laws to non-profit organizations would have far-reaching implications beyond this particular case, potentially affecting all sorts of charitable institutions. Furthermore, he contended that Congress did not intend for such entities to fall under antitrust legislation when it was enacted. In his view, if there were issues with how these organizations conducted their business operations or competed in certain markets, those concerns should be addressed through other legislative means rather than by stretching the interpretation of existing antitrust law.