Supreme Court appears inclined to back Catholic entities’ exemption request in Colorado preschool case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, Election Day, appeared to lean toward Catholic entities seeking an exemption from Colorado’s antidiscrimination rules so they can take part in a taxpayer-funded preschool program. Justice Lawrence Hurley reported from Washington for NBC News that the case is the latest in a series that pit LGBTQ and religious rights against each other. A ruling is due by the end of June.

During the two-hour session, the court’s conservative majority seemed inclined to view Colorado’s refusal to grant an accommodation as a violation of the religious rights of the Archdiocese of Denver and other plaintiffs under the First Amendment. Most cases of this kind that the Supreme Court has considered in the past decade have arisen from Colorado. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority that regularly favors religious rights in cases brought by Christian groups.

At issue is a state law provision that bars preschools from participating in the state-funded program if they refuse admission to children based on the sexual orientation or gender identity of the child or parents. Because Catholic doctrine does not recognize same-sex relationships or transgender status, the plaintiffs say the rule conflicts with their religious rights. The Trump administration supports the challengers.

Several conservative justices indicated that the refusal to give the Catholic preschools an exemption had echoes of past discrimination against religious groups, even though the law did not expressly single them out. Justice Neil Gorsuch cited recent rulings over the last decade in which the court has allowed taxpayer money to flow to religious entities, including schools, despite longstanding prohibitions rooted in the Establishment Clause. Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “I’m not assuming animus” on the part of the state, but asked, “if you know that the effect of choosing that requirement will push out those with a contrary belief, how is that different?”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh questioned why there was any need to enforce compliance with the antidiscrimination provision, noting that LGBTQ families have many other preschool options. He said the state could have pursued a “win-win” by accommodating both religious and LGBTQ rights. “There are plenty of opportunities to respect the rights of the religious believers and respect the ability of LGBT parents to find among the 2,000 schools an appropriate fit for their children,” he added. Seeking an arrangement that honors both sides is a path toward peace where it can be found (Romans 12:18).

The court’s three liberal justices expressed concern that the Catholic entities want broad leeway to refuse compliance with any law they object to. “It seems to me like you are asking for a special rule for religious schools,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told the Catholic challengers’ lawyer, Nicholas Reaves. Justice Barrett added that, on the other side, by refusing to accommodate LGBTQ families, the preschools effectively want to “discriminate by exclusion.”

The preschool program was approved as part of a statewide referendum in 2020 and provides taxpayer funds for parents to send their children to their preferred preschool. The case before the justices focuses on the long-running question of whether excluding religious groups from certain government programs violates the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion.

Source: Read the original report