Supreme Court hears case on LGBTQ exclusions at publicly funded Catholic preschools

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday regarding Colorado's universal pre-K program and whether religious schools can exclude certain families despite the state's anti-discrimination law, NPR reported.

The case involves Catholic preschools in Colorado that argue it is unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program because of their admissions policies toward LGBTQ+ families, according to PBS NewsHour.

The Archdiocese of Denver and the Trump administration urged the Court to overturn a ruling that allows Colorado to exclude Roman Catholic schools that do not comply with equal-opportunity requirements, making this a significant religious-rights case before the conservative-majority Court, PBS NewsHour noted.

Colorado maintains that excluding children from LGBTQ+ families violates the state's anti-discrimination law, while the Catholic preschools contend that their policies are based on religious teachings about same-sex marriage and that excluding them infringes on their free-exercise rights, PBS NewsHour reported.

An attorney for the archdiocese argued that allowing Catholic schools to participate in the program would increase available seats for all families, even those who disagree with Catholic teachings, emphasizing that the issue is not a zero-sum game, PBS NewsHour said.