The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case out of Colorado that involves publicly funded preschool programs and religious schools.
The state’s Department of Early Childhood began a program in 2023 to give eligible families about $6,300 to cover 15 hours a week of preschool. When Catholic families wanted to use these funds for the Archdiocese of Denver’s preschools, they couldn’t. From Becket Law:
The Department justified this by claiming the Archdiocese’s religious exercise—specifically, its inability to use opposite-sex pronouns or offer dress code and bathroom accommodations for a hypothetical transgender preschooler—were inconsistent with the funding program’s requirements. Yet the Department readily acknowledged there was no evidence even a single transgender preschooler had sought to attend Catholic preschool in Denver.
Becket Law said that the preschool program director admitted to applying a double standard.
As Becket Law noted, Colorado has not been successful over the past several years in court cases involving Christians.
— Colorado lost at the Supreme Court in 2018 against Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker and Christian who declined to make a custom “wedding” cake for two homosexuals.
— Colorado lost at the Supreme Court in 2023 in the case of Lorie Smith, a Christian photographer and blogger who did not want to provide services for homosexual “weddings.”
— Colorado lost at the Supreme Court in April 2026 in a case involving Christian counselor Kaley Chiles. The court ruled that a state ban against “conversion” therapy was unconstitutional.
After striking out so many times before the country’s highest court, Colorado is still discriminating against Christians. Becket Law appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the state’s discrimination against religious preschools.
The Supreme Court in April agreed to hear the case. Now state government lawyers will stand before the nine justices and argue in favor of religious discrimination again. And likely will lose…again.
Photo credit: Becket Law
