Supreme Court hears Colorado Catholic preschools’ challenge to nondiscrimination condition
Rights & JusticeWell-covered
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The Facts
- The Supreme Court heard St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy on November 3.
- The case concerns Colorado’s publicly funded universal preschool program.
- Colorado requires participating preschools to provide equal enrollment opportunities regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver challenge the enrollment requirement.
- The Catholic challengers say the condition conflicts with their religious teachings on same-sex marriage.
- Colorado says the requirement applies to preschool providers receiving public funding.
- During arguments, several justices appeared receptive to the Catholic institutions’ position.
- The ruling could affect how religious-liberty claims interact with LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections.
Context
What are the Catholic institutions asking the court to decide?
They seek an exemption from Colorado’s nondiscrimination condition so they can participate in the state-funded preschool program, arguing exclusion violates their constitutional free-exercise rights. Reuters ABC News CBS News
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both frames agree Colorado's enrollment rule attaches to preschools that accept its public funding, and that the parish's religious teaching genuinely conflicts with that condition.
- Where Left and Right split
- The left and the right split on whether the preschool rule protects families or punishes a parish's faith.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in institutions: whether the Supreme Court's religious-liberty doctrine should govern how public benefit conditions interact with church teaching, or whether elected state policymakers retain that authority.
How left and right read it
Left says
When public money pays for preschool, the public gets to say that every family may enroll — that is the whole point of a universal program. Colorado's condition applies to providers taking those funds, so the burden belongs to St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver to justify why taxpayer-supported seats may be closed to children of same-sex parents. Keep the condition.
“The conservative justices on Tuesday seemed likely to oblige their request.” — NPR
Is this how the left would actually put it?
Right says
Neutrality is not the same as conformity. Colorado's enrollment rule reaches providers in its publicly funded preschool program, so St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver must either set aside their teaching on same-sex marriage or stay out. Several justices sounded receptive to them, which raises the question worth pressing: why must a parish pay for its place in a public program with its creed?
“It turned into a verbal fistfight as the court's three left-leaning justices sought to halt a recent string of victories for religious freedom.” — New York Post
Is this how the right would actually put it?
Public funding comes with strings; the fight is over whether those strings can require a parish to set aside its faith.
The receipts — 77 sources
Wire services (9)
Independent coverage (68)
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