WASHINGTON — The Trump administration joined the Archdiocese of Denver on Tuesday in urging the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling allowing a state-funded preschool program in Colorado to exclude Roman Catholic schools that don’t comply with equal-opportunity requirements — the latest religious-rights case before the conservative-majority court.
President Donald Trump’s administration is supporting the Catholic institutions. Because their parents are a same-sex couple, justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama, asked Reaves if the Catholic school can reject a child simply.
Justice Elena Kagan, who was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama, said the administration seems to be arguing that children of same-sex marriage can be excluded because “exposing” them to other students “creates a problem. “No, I think the court currently has a mess,” Harris said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by Trump, a Republican, suggested Colorado’s law has created an unnecessary “clash of rights” between LGBTQ families and “religious believers.”
A win for the Catholic preschools could further narrow a landmark 1990 Supreme Court decision that found religious practices don’t create exemptions from laws that otherwise apply broadly. In 2025, though, the court deadlocked over a plan to establish a publicly funded Catholic charter school after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. The Catholic preschools say their enrollment has dropped 20% since the program started.
Written by conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia in a case over the spiritual use of peyote, a cactus containing mescaline that’s sacred to many Indigenous people, the decision has nevertheless long been a target of the conservative legal movement. In the Colorado case, the high court could be sympathetic to the schools. The justices have sided with religious schools in similar disputes before, ruling in recent years that they can’t be excluded from programs in Maine and Montana that provide public aid to private schools. The plaintiffs, represented by the group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, say the state has allowed other preschools to prioritize children with disabilities or those from low-income families, so admission based on religious beliefs about gender and same-sex marriage should be allowed, too.
