Supreme Court to Hear Catholic Schools' Challenge to Colorado Preschool Rules on LGBTQ Families

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on November 3, 2026, in a case involving Catholic preschools challenging Colorado's nondiscrimination requirements for participation in the state's publicly funded universal preschool program.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a case involving Catholic preschools and Colorado's nondiscrimination requirements for publicly funded education.

The case, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, concerns whether Colorado can require participating preschools to provide equal enrollment opportunities to families regardless of characteristics including sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Catholic schools argue that the state's requirements violate their religious freedom by preventing them from applying admissions policies consistent with their religious beliefs.

They are seeking an exemption that would allow them to participate in the public preschool program while maintaining those policies.

Colorado maintains that all providers receiving public funding, whether secular or religious, must comply with the program's nondiscrimination requirements. The case could have significant implications for the relationship between religious liberty and civil rights protections in publicly funded education programs.

The justices will consider whether the state's rules are generally applicable and whether the treatment of religious schools violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.

The dispute is among the latest cases testing the boundaries between religious freedom and government requirements attached to public benefits.

In a separate development, the Supreme Court recently declined to intervene in a dispute involving Texas and the federal government over an immigration rule adopted during the Biden administration.

Texas had challenged the rule, which gave immigration judges discretion to pause removal proceedings in certain circumstances.

The dispute reached the Supreme Court after the Trump administration joined Texas in seeking to invalidate the rule nationwide. The court's refusal to grant emergency relief left the lower-court ruling in place at that stage of the proceedings.