[1]WASHINGTON (BP) – The Supreme Court announced on Monday (April 20) that it will not reconsider its landmark 1990 religious freedom decision that lower courts cited in a Colorado dispute over Catholic preschools and LGBTQ families, but it will hear arguments over how that ruling applies in the case.
Employment Division v. Smith [2] framed such cases over religious exemptions, and when they should be applied in cases involving religious freedom.
A 2022 Colorado law creating a “universal” preschool program that funds up to 15 hours of free preschool at any public or licensed private school requires those schools to include all children and parents, regardless of characteristics such as sexual orientation and gender identity. St. Mary Catholic Parish, based in Littleton, requires families to uphold the sincere religious beliefs of the school.
Catholic preschools from the Denver Archdiocese, including St. Mary Catholic Parish, filed a federal lawsuit in August 2023. In January 2024, a federal district court generally upheld the state’s position, calling the nondiscrimination measure neutral and not in violation of the First Amendment. That decision was upheld last September by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
At the end of March, the Supreme Court upheld [3] a Colorado Christian counselor’s right to free speech regarding counseling clients with LGBTQ issues.
“Once again, the state of Colorado will appear before the Supreme Court, asking justices to endorse its latest effort to discriminate against religious people,” said Miles Mullin, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission chief of staff. “Colorado did not have to create a universal pre-school program, but when it did, it had a legal obligation to include religious preschools in that program – even those that hold to a biblical sexual ethic that its lawmakers do not like.”
He went on to call the action “religious bigotry” that “violates the First Amendment, ignores over 10 years of Constitutional case law and enshrines religious discrimination in law.”
The ERLC joined an amicus brief [4] alongside the National Association of Evangelicals and others in support of St. Mary Catholic Parish. Although the Colorado preschool program is “universal” in name, the brief argues that the law is not so in reality, as long as it excludes religious groups.
[5]The brief noted that the lower court’s decision is “hardly the only case” where the Smith decision [2] has been used to discriminate against those with religious beliefs, citing Masterpiece Cakeshop [6], Fulton v. Philadelphia [7] and Agudath Israel of America v. Cuomo [8]. It also included language from the original petition that “Religious people across the country are stuck in forever conflicts precisely because of the (sometimes willful) confusion among the lower courts over the meaning of the Free Exercise Clause.”
Colorado has “no right to impose penalties for religious opinions,” said Mullin, adding that “God alone is the Lord of the conscience.”
“Although the freedom to practice one’s religion is guaranteed by the Constitution, it is a God-given right that is recognized in the First Amendment, not granted by it,” he said. “The right to practice one’s religion is a prepolitical, first freedom that must be defended, which is why the ERLC submitted a brief urging the court to hear this case and looks forward to submitting an additional brief arguing the merits of the case.”
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