Colorado keeps stepping on religious liberty, all the way to the United States Supreme Court. This time it’s Catholic families and schools who want to use the state’s “universal” preschool funding program to enroll their kids in Catholic preschools.
Today those families and preschools had their day in the highest court in the land.
In 2023, Colorado launched a preschool funding program giving eligible families more than $6,000 to cover the cost of preschool. It was marketed as “universal,” a program every child in the state would benefit from.
The Catholic families and preschools argue they can’t participate because the state’s “equal opportunity requirements” force them to violate their religious beliefs and teachings about sexuality, marriage, and gender identity.
The Archdiocese of Denver, which oversees over 30 preschools, including St. Mary Catholic Parish’s, asked for an exemption. The state said no, so the preschools and parents like Dan and Lisa Sheley have lost access to a public benefit paid for with their own tax dollars. Yet the state has approved special enrollment preferences for other preschools, for things like vaccination status, children of teen parents, and dual-language who agree to eat a vegetarian diet. Just not religious beliefs, apparently.
At Moms for Liberty, we know parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children, including their education. When the government excludes religious options from a state program, it shackles parental rights, diminishes educational freedom, and violates religious liberty.
In the last decade alone, SCOTUS has consistently affirmed that the government cannot exclude people from public benefits because of their religious beliefs.
And Colorado has what some would call an embarrassing record of trampling religious freedom. In 2018 it lost in Masterpiece Cakeshop, in 2023 it lost in 303 Creative, and earlier this year it lost in Chiles. Justice Samuel Alito pointed to that record today, asking Colorado’s lawyer, “What should we make of this?”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett went further, noting no family had ever asked St. Mary’s to change its policies: “Why are we here?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked whether Colorado’s rule was “a solution in search of a problem.”
St. Mary Catholic Parish and the families bravely battling their government are represented by our friends at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the same law firm that represented religious parents in Montgomery County, Maryland (including members of Moms for Liberty) in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Mahmoud was cited multiple times today and may be one of the strongest arguments for a St. Mary’s victory, because the Supreme Court has consistently held that parents, not the state, direct their children’s religious upbringing.
A ruling in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy is expected by the end of June 2027. After today’s oral arguments, top court watchers and analysts are predicting religious liberty will prevail, again.
About the Author:
Rosalind Hanson is Moms for Liberty’s Director of Development and Montgomery County, Maryland Chapter Chair. Her writing has been featured in The Daily Wire, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Stand, and The Washington Times. She’s been a TV guest on Fox, Newsmax, OAN, and local Washington D.C. radio and TV outlets.
