Colorado is discriminating against Christians again.
After losing three Supreme Court cases related to the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses, Colorado is violating the religious freedom of Christian schools that seek to participate in the state’s taxpayer-funded universal preschool program.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) this week filed an amicus brief in a case involving the state and St. Mary Catholic Parish and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish.
These churches want to exercise their religion by prioritizing children from Christian families for admission to their preschools. The goal of such schools is to educate children about their beliefs. As ACLJ noted, religious schools want to remain religious.
Here’s a clear case of religious discrimination: providers used to have the option to list congregational preference in the preschool-matching algorithm for admissions, among other preferences for geographic boundaries, sibling placement, language needs, etc. But the congregational preference disappeared.
All the others remained.
The churches won in federal court, but lost at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear their case. From ACLJ:
Colorado’s preschool rules do exactly that. A preschool may prefer a child because their sibling already attends, or because their family works there, or because they share a “specific interest” – but a Christian school may not prefer a child from a Christian family. That is not neutrality. That is discrimination against religion, dressed up as an administrative preference system.
Colorado is denying churches the right to choose preschool children based on religious beliefs, which they have a right to do under the Constitution. Allegations like racial or religious discrimination trigger strict scrutiny from the courts — a high standard.
Let’s hope the high court rules in favor of freedom.
