Supreme Court to Hear Challenge Over Colorado Excluding Catholic Preschools from Universal Pre-K

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a Colorado case over whether Catholic preschools can be excluded from the state’s universal preschool program because they refuse to accept LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination conditions tied to public funding.

The case is St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, No. 25-581. In a docket entry dated April 20, 2026, the court said: “Apr 20 2026 Petition GRANTED limited to Questions 1 and 2 presented by the petition.” The justices’ move sets up another major dispute over the line between religious-liberty protections and state anti-discrimination requirements in publicly funded education programs.

Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program allows both public and private providers to participate. But providers that accept UPK money must sign an equal-opportunity or nondiscrimination agreement that, according to court filings, covers categories including religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, income and disability.

The challengers — St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton, St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood, the Archdiocese of Denver and a Catholic family identified in court filings as the Sheleys — argue that signing that agreement would conflict with the schools’ religious beliefs and policies. They say those faith-based standards affect admissions, staffing and requirements for the school community, and that Colorado is excluding them from a generally available public benefit because of those religious commitments.

The lower courts rejected that challenge. After a bench trial in federal district court, the case went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which on Sept. 30, 2025, affirmed the district court’s core holdings. The appeals court concluded that Colorado’s requirement was a neutral law of general applicability — a key concept in free exercise law meaning a rule that applies broadly rather than targeting religion.

That point is now at the center of what the Supreme Court agreed to decide. As framed in the petition and in a brief from the U.S. government, the justices will examine whether a nondiscrimination condition that includes secular exceptions or discretionary exemptions still counts as neutral and generally applicable under Employment Division v. Smith, the court’s 1990 precedent. If not, the state’s policy could face heightened constitutional scrutiny, a tougher form of judicial review under the Free Exercise Clause.

The respondents are Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, and Dawn Odean, director of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program.

The case lands in an area the Supreme Court has revisited repeatedly in recent years. In Smith, the court held that neutral and generally applicable laws usually do not violate the Free Exercise Clause. But in more recent cases — including Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin — the court has narrowed states’ ability to keep religious institutions out of public benefit programs simply because they are religious. Another relevant case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, addressed when a system of individualized or discretionary exemptions can trigger stronger free exercise protections.

The U.S. solicitor general’s office backed Supreme Court review. In an amicus brief filed Jan. 30, 2026, supporting the petitioners, the government said: “The government’s decision to file an uninvited certiorari-stage amicus brief reflects its views about the severity of the court of appeals’ error, the recurrence of the question presented, and the significant benefit that further clarity in this area of the law would provide to the lower courts, federal and state governments, and the public.”

The petition seeking Supreme Court review was filed Nov. 13, 2025, and docketed Nov. 17, 2025. The justices have not yet publicly set a briefing schedule or argument date. The eventual ruling could shape not only Colorado’s preschool system, but also how states nationwide structure publicly funded education and child care programs that include religious providers while enforcing LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination rules.