Supreme Court Hears Case Over State Funding for Catholic Preschools in Colorado

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case brought by Catholic preschools that say it is unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program because of their admissions policy for LGBTQ+ families. The case is the latest religious-rights matter before the court, which has a conservative majority.

Colorado says the schools’ refusal to admit children from those families violates the state’s anti-discrimination law. The preschools’ challenge is brought by St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver, which argue that the policy is based on religious teachings about same-sex marriage and that excluding the schools violates their free-exercise rights. President Donald Trump’s administration is supporting the Catholic institutions.

The outcome could affect a landmark 1990 Supreme Court decision holding that religious practices do not create exemptions from laws that otherwise apply broadly. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that decision in a case over the spiritual use of peyote, a cactus containing mescaline that is sacred to many Indigenous people. The decision has long been a target of the conservative legal movement, and a ruling for the preschools could narrow it further.

The justices have sided with religious schools in similar disputes before. In recent years they ruled that religious schools cannot be excluded from programs in Maine and Montana that provide public aid to private schools. In 2025, however, the court deadlocked over a plan to establish a publicly funded Catholic charter school after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.

The Colorado universal preschool program was created by a 2020 ballot measure and provides public funding for preschool at schools chosen by parents. The plaintiffs, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, say the state has allowed other preschools to prioritize children with disabilities or those from low-income families. They argue that admission based on religious beliefs about gender and same-sex marriage should be allowed as well. The Catholic preschools say their enrollment has dropped 20% since the program started.

Colorado argues that the other admissions decisions are in line with the state’s anti-discrimination rules.