Supreme Court Hears Case on Catholic Preschools’ Role in Colorado Universal Program

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Nov. 3 in a case between Catholic preschools and the state of Colorado over whether those schools may take part in the state’s universal preschool program. The program gives parents funds of up to about $6,000 to send their child to the preschool of their choice, whether public or private, including faith-based schools.

Two Catholic parishes with preschools in the Archdiocese of Denver have alleged that Colorado excluded their schools from the program because of their religious beliefs. The schools require faculty and parents to sign a “statement of community beliefs” acknowledging the Catholic Church’s teachings on topics including marriage, sexuality and gender. Colorado has argued that the Catholic preschools ran afoul of a nondiscrimination rule in the program. That rule prohibits participating schools from refusing admission to any child on the basis of the sexual orientation and gender identity of the child or the child’s family.

Nicholas Reaves, senior counsel at Becket, a religious liberty law firm representing the schools, told the court that the schools “exist to pass on the faith to the next generation.” He said they ask all enrolling families to be “open to and supportive of the Church’s teachings,” and that the state had therefore denied Colorado families the ability to use universal preschool funding at Catholic schools. Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned that position, saying the Catholic schools were not being excluded on their face and were choosing not to participate because they would not receive an exemption. Reaves responded that “for the Catholic Church, it’s not about excluding anyone based on who they are.”

The story cited the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and its 2024 declaration “Dignitas Infinita” (“Infinite Dignity”). According to the source, the document holds “that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided.” It also opposes what it calls “gender theory” and describes sexual difference as “the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings.”

Colorado Deputy Solicitor General Helen Norton told the court that “Colorado welcomes religious preschools” to the program, which is sometimes called UPK. “The only thing Colorado asks is that they comply with the same conditions that every publicly funded preschool must meet, religious and secular alike,” Norton said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked whether Colorado’s position was consistent with allowing single-sex preschools to participate. Norton replied that biological sex is “not one of the characteristics enumerated in the UPK law.”

Several justices appeared more inclined toward the preschools’ position, according to the report. Chief Justice John Roberts said the effect of Colorado’s law seemed “pretty much the same” as a Maine law that the court struck down in its 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, which found that the Maine law improperly excluded religious schools from a public tuition assistance program. Before the hearing, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said in a Nov. 3 statement that Colorado’s nondiscrimination requirement “ensures no family can be denied a quality education simply for who they are” and “should be upheld.”

During a brief press conference after the arguments, Reaves likened Colorado’s position to a “‘no Catholics need apply’ policy.” He said Colorado “argued that Catholic schools must abandon their religious exercise to participate in a program open to everyone else,” and that the state “insisted with a straight face that a program can still be universal while shutting out families for their faith.”

Source: Read the original report