Supreme Court weighs taxpayer funding for Catholic preschools that exclude LGBTQ+ families

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a case testing whether Colorado may require schools that accept state funding to treat LGBTQ families and students the same as everyone else. The state’s universal preschool program, launched in 2023, includes public and private providers, including religious schools, and bars participating schools from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Two Catholic parishes and the Archdiocese of Denver challenged Colorado’s nondiscrimination conditions without applying to participate, arguing the rules conflict with their religious admissions policies. A federal district court ruled for Colorado after a trial, and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. The Supreme Court agreed in April to hear the challenge.

“Your Catholic schools will reject a child merely because their parents are homosexual?”

During Tuesday’s argument, Chief Justice John Roberts briefly appeared open to breaking with his conservative colleagues and upholding Colorado’s policy. He noted that the plaintiffs are asking the Court to go beyond its previous precedents, citing Carson v. Makin from 2022, which required Maine to fund religious schools in a tuition voucher program. Unlike Maine’s program, Colorado’s already includes religious schools.

The Court’s three liberal justices sharply questioned whether Catholic preschools should receive taxpayer funding while rejecting children of LGBTQ+ parents. Justice Elena Kagan asked whether the schools must treat those families better, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor pressed the schools’ attorney, Nicholas Reaves, on what an exemption would permit. Reaves said that if rejection is the sincere religious exercise of the petitioner, he believes it would be permitted.

Many conservative justices appeared receptive to the schools’ challenge to Colorado’s nondiscrimination requirements. In recent years, the Court has consistently ruled in favor of religious conservatives in cases pitting them against LGBTQ Americans, though several justices said the governing legal doctrines are incoherent and often call for illogical results.

The case involves families who want the same educational opportunities as their neighbors and schools that wish to exclude children of same-sex couples while still receiving state funding. A decision could affect how states balance public funding for religious providers with nondiscrimination laws.