A federal court has ruled that requiring participants in Colorado’s universal pre-K program to abide by an LGBT nondiscrimination statement doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution as Catholic schools seek to enroll students under the program while adhering to their religious beliefs.
In an opinion released Tuesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit unanimously rejected the request of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, two Catholic schools and parents of pre-school aged children to issue a ruling declaring that the requirement for all schools participating in Colorado’s universal pre-K program to sign a nondiscrimination agreement violates the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Catholic schools in the archdiocese are seeking to participate in the universal pre-K program, which allows students to attend pre-K free of charge at participating schools. Other plaintiffs in the suit include parents seeking to enroll their children in a pre-K program offered by a Catholic school.
The LGBT nondiscrimination agreement at the center of the litigation requires participants in the universal pre-K program to “provide eligible children an equal opportunity to enroll and receive preschool education regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level, or disability, as such characteristics and circumstances apply to the child or the child’s family.”
The plaintiff schools argue that abiding by the LGBT nondiscrimination agreement would force them to set aside their deeply held religious beliefs about gender and sexuality by forcing them to enroll trans-identified students and children of same-sex couples. The archdiocese has warned that admitting trans-identified students and children of same-sex couples was “likely to lead to intractable conflicts” in light of Catholic schools’ efforts to instill in children Catholic Church teachings about gender and sexuality.
The federal appellate court concluded that “The nondiscrimination requirement exists in harmony with the First Amendment and does not violate the Parish Preschools’ First Amendment rights.”
The case went before the Tenth Circuit after a lower court judge declined to issue a ruling protecting the Catholic schools’ policies pertaining to admissions decisions, requiring teachers to adhere to Catholic beliefs on marriage and sexuality, and requiring students and their families to also adhere to Catholic beliefs on marriage and sexuality and allowing the school to ) operate “in accordance with their religious beliefs.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has represented the plaintiffs throughout their litigation, reacted to Tuesday’s decision by stating, “Becket remains committed to ensuring that every preschooler in Colorado has access to quality, affordable education.” This suggests that Becket is likely to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As mentioned in Tuesday’s opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a multitude of rulings in recent years with favorable outcomes for religious liberty advocates. In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that the state of Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a program that allows students who live in towns without public schools to attend private schools using state tax dollars.
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer that churches cannot be excluded from state aid programs.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
