Case over state funding for Catholic preschools in Colorado comes before the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case brought by Catholic preschools that say it’s unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program over their admissions policy for LGBTQ+ families, the latest religious-rights case before the conservative-majority court.

Colorado says their refusal to admit kids from those families violates the state's anti-discrimination law.

But St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver argue that the policy is based on religious teachings about same-sex marriage and that excluding them violates their free-exercise rights.

President Donald Trump's administration is supporting the Catholic institutions.

A win for the preschools could further narrow a landmark 1990 Supreme Court decision that found religious practices don’t create exemptions from laws that otherwise apply broadly. Written by conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia in a case over the spiritual use of peyote, a cactus containing mescaline that's sacred to many Indigenous people, the decision has nevertheless long been a target of the conservative legal movement.

In the Colorado case, the high court could be sympathetic to the schools. The justices have sided with religious schools in similar disputes before, ruling in recent years that they can’t be excluded from programs in Maine and Montana that provide public aid to private schools. In 2025, though, 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. It provides public funding for preschool at schools chosen by parents.

The plaintiffs, represented by the group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, say the state has allowed other preschools to prioritize children with disabilities or those from low-income families, so admission based on religious beliefs about gender and same-sex marriage should be allowed, too. 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.

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