The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether two Catholic schools in Colorado were improperly excluded from a state-funded preschool initiative due to their religious beliefs on LGBT-related issues.
In an orders list released Monday, the Court granted certiorari in the case of St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Lisa Roy, taking up the question of when the government may bar religious organizations from participating in public programs.
The dispute began in August 2023, when St. Mary Catholic Parish and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish filed a lawsuit alleging they were excluded from the state’s preschool program because of their religious convictions.
The parishes argued that their admissions preference for Catholic families and their requirement that staff adhere to Catholic teachings — including positions on sexual ethics and gender identity — led to their disqualification.
Other plaintiffs in the case include the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver and several parents of preschool-aged children, while the defendants include Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, and Dawn Odean, director of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program.
Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program offers at least 15 hours of free preschool per week for eligible children and is supported through both public and private funding sources.
At the center of the case is the program’s equal-opportunity provision, which requires participating preschools to “provide eligible children an equal opportunity to enroll and receive services regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level, or disability, as such characteristics and circumstances apply to the child or the child’s family.”
In June 2024, a federal district court ruled against the plaintiffs, determining that the requirement “does not exclude Plaintiffs from the UPK Program solely because of their religious status or exercise,” but instead “applies to UPK providers, regardless of their religious or non-religious character.”
The court further stated, “The purpose of the requirement is not to invade religious freedom but to further the implementation of a strongly embraced public value,” adding that “the equal-opportunity requirement is neutral and has been applied to Plaintiffs in a neutral manner.”
The decision was later upheld in September by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, with Judge Richard Federico writing the opinion.
The plaintiffs subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court in November, with representation from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a group known for litigating religious freedom cases.
