Supreme Court's Conservative Justices Sound Sympathetic to Catholic Preschools Shut Out of Colorado's Universal Pre-K, Fox News Reports
After two hours of argument Tuesday, Kavanaugh and Barrett pressed the state, Kagan and Sotomayor pushed back, and Chief Justice Roberts asked hard questions of both sides. A ruling is expected by spring.
The Supreme Court's conservative justices signaled support Tuesday for Catholic preschools that say Colorado's taxpayer-funded program unlawfully shuts them out, Fox News reports.
The case. It is St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy (25-581). Colorado's Universal Preschool Program, created by a 2020 ballot measure, requires participating schools to offer an equal opportunity to enroll regardless of religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity and other traits. Two Catholic parishes sued, saying the rule targets their beliefs about same-sex marriage. Fox says the archdiocese runs 34 preschools with a policy of admitting only students from families who support Catholic teaching. The Trump administration has backed the parishes.
The money. The state pays $6,300 a year per child for up to 15 hours a week, funded by a tobacco tax. Becket, the group representing the plaintiffs, says enrollment at archdiocesan preschools has fallen 20% and two schools have closed. Erika Nagle, a Littleton parent, told Fox, "We are being excluded from this benefit because we are Catholic."
From the bench. Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the state's approach "a would-be solution in search of a problem" and asked, "Why not seek the win/win?" Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked the state to explain the difference between excluding Catholic schools outright and imposing a condition it knows they cannot meet. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said families should have the choice but argued the schools want the state to subsidize them while rejecting some children. Justice Elena Kagan said the question is whether the state must treat religious schools "better." Chief Justice John Roberts questioned both sides and noted that earlier cases involved laws that discriminated against religious schools on their face, suggesting Colorado's may apply evenly. Fox says his vote could be decisive.
The state's case. Colorado attorney Helen Norton said the state "welcomes religious preschools" and asks only that they follow the conditions every publicly funded preschool must meet. The state says Catholic Charities, at least three dozen Christian schools, one Muslim school and three Jewish schools take part.
The stakes. The court will also decide whether to narrow a 36-year-old precedent that religious practices do not create exemptions from broadly applicable laws. A ruling is expected by next spring.
Related. We previously covered the Colorado mother at the center of the case and an opinion column on the state's preschool program.
What we could not check. Questions at oral argument do not decide a case, and we have not read the transcript. Fox's description of the justices' leanings is its own.