Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a blunt question for Colorado: Why did the state create a Supreme Court showdown when there appeared to be room for both religious liberty and parental choice?
That question now hangs over a major First Amendment case involving Catholic preschools, public funding and Colorado’s demand that participating schools accept families whose conduct conflicts with Catholic teaching.
The case is St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, and the Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday.
According to the Associated Press, the Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic parishes are challenging Colorado’s decision to exclude their preschools from the state’s universal preschool program. The Trump administration joined the Catholic schools and urged the justices to reverse the lower-court ruling.
Colorado argues that any school accepting public money must follow the program’s nondiscrimination rules, including protections for children from LGBT families.
The Catholic schools say the state is forcing them to choose between participating in a generally available public benefit and remaining faithful to their religious mission.
The dispute began after the schools sought to join Colorado’s tuition-free preschool system while maintaining admissions rules rooted in Catholic teaching on marriage and family. Lower courts sided with the state, concluding that the same conditions applied to religious and secular providers.
The schools answer that Colorado went beyond regulating classroom instruction. It excluded them because of how their faith shapes the community they are trying to build, even though parents—not the state—choose which participating preschool their children attend.
The Supreme Court’s official argument transcript shows Kavanaugh focusing on the practical reality of the dispute. Colorado has roughly 2,000 participating preschools, while only a few dozen Catholic schools are involved in the conflict.
Kavanaugh pressed the state on why a workable accommodation was not found. Families seeking a school that affirms same-sex marriage have many participating options, while Catholic families want access to schools that teach the faith they practice at home.
The transcript shows the justices testing more than one constitutional theory. They asked whether Colorado targeted religious exercise, whether its rule was genuinely neutral and generally applicable, and whether the state could satisfy the demanding review that applies when government burdens a protected faith practice.
The numbers sharpened Kavanaugh’s concern. Colorado’s lawyer acknowledged a system with roughly 2,000 providers and about 34 Catholic schools at issue, making the state’s refusal to accommodate them look less like a practical necessity and more like an avoidable choice.
That gets to the heart of the matter.
Colorado created a program for families across the state. It then told religious parents their schools could participate only if those schools surrendered a core part of their religious identity.
The state calls that equal treatment. To many Americans, it looks like a religious test attached to a public benefit.
The legal question is not whether every family deserves dignity. It does.
The question is whether Colorado may make religious conformity a condition for taking part in a program that is otherwise open to private schools.
The justices have confronted Colorado before in cases involving Christian business owners and compelled expression. This dispute adds an especially sensitive ingredient: parents choosing where their four-year-old children will be educated.
Colorado Public Radio reported that several conservative justices appeared frustrated that the conflict reached the nation’s highest court at all. The report noted the same basic numbers Kavanaugh emphasized—thousands of participating providers and only a small group of Catholic schools seeking an accommodation.
Meanwhile, Colorado voters sent their own message on cultural questions involving children.
Preliminary results reported Wednesday showed narrow leads for Proposition 134, which would set sex-based rules for school sports, and Proposition 135, which would prohibit certain surgeries on minors intended to alter biological sex characteristics.
The results were still developing, and close margins require caution. But even in a state that elected Democrats statewide, a substantial number of voters were plainly unwilling to give progressive institutions a blank check on questions involving children, faith and biological sex.
The Colorado General Assembly’s official ballot guide explains that Proposition 134 would classify school athletic teams as male, female or coeducational, while Proposition 135 would bar specified surgeries on minors and prohibit public funds or insurance coverage from paying for them.
Under Proposition 134, public schools and colleges would organize participation around a student’s biological reproductive system, while still permitting coeducational teams. Proposition 135 addresses surgical procedures intended to alter a minor’s biological sex characteristics and includes limited exceptions for procedures treating injuries, disease or congenital conditions.
The official guide also lays out the opposition: critics argue that the measures interfere with local sports policies and family medical decisions. Supporters say statewide rules are needed to protect girls’ competition and prevent irreversible procedures before adulthood.
Those competing claims were presented directly to voters, who appeared closely divided as ballots continued to be counted.
Those ballot questions are separate from the Catholic preschool case. Together, however, they reveal the same growing tension.
Colorado’s political leadership has moved aggressively to impose progressive rules. Parents, churches and now voters are pushing back when those rules collide with faith, family authority or basic biological distinctions.
The Supreme Court will issue its decision later. But Kavanaugh’s question already deserves an answer.
Why force a constitutional collision when the state could respect religious families and still preserve abundant choices for everyone else?
The post Justice Kavanaugh Puts Colorado on the Spot in Catholic Preschool Religious-Liberty Fight appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
