by Craig Nash | Oct 6, 2026 | News
(Credit: Mark Thomas / Pixabay / https://tinyurl.com/5tnsvvak)
Among a handful of religious-liberty cases the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) will hear this session, which began yesterday, one pits a Colorado nondiscrimination law against the state’s Universal Preschool Program (UPK). The early childhood program provides preschool tuition for up to 15 hours per week for students in their final year before kindergarten. Yet Colorado law prohibits funding for preschools that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Two Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver contend the nondiscrimination policy, which forbids them from denying admission to students with same-sex parents, violates their First Amendment rights. They have refused to sign the nondiscrimination agreement, denying them state funds from the UPK program.
According to Linda Greenhouse, who covers SCOTUS cases for The New York Times, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy concerns a 2022 ruling that declared Maine’s exclusion of religious schools from receiving publicly funded private school subsidies was unconstitutional. Plaintiffs in the Colorado case are arguing that the religious exemption in the Maine case also applies to Colorado religious schools.
The State of Colorado argues that the Maine decision prohibited disqualifying private schools from public funding solely because they provided religious education. They contend that their refusal to allow a school to receive UPK funds has nothing to do with the schools’ right to provide religious education, but with their refusal to serve particular students.
The case, scheduled to appear before the court in early November, will clarify what counts as a religious exemption in public education.
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