Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street.
Well, recently, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear yet another First Amendment case arising out of Colorado. St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy involves a law that excludes Catholic and other religious institutions from participating in the state's so-called Universal Preschool Program, or UPK.
UPK pays for parents to send their children to a Colorado preschool of their choice, either public or private. The goal is to expand educational choice, allowing parents to choose from a broad range of providers based on their unique needs and values. Religious schools can participate in UPK, but only if they agree to what Colorado calls a non-discrimination requirement. Which tells schools they must provide families an equal opportunity to enroll regardless of race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, income level, or disability. Though this may sound like an everybody welcome kind of policy, it's not.
In practice, the state grants numerous exceptions, allowing preschools to prefer children of color or the LGBTQ community or low-income families or children with disabilities, to cite just a few examples. But there is one exception that Colorado clearly will not grant, any religious one.
So a Catholic preschool that wants to prefer Catholic families cannot participate in UPK. And the same is true of evangelical, Christian, Orthodox, Jewish, or other providers who are religiously selective about which families they enroll. And equally troubling, participating preschools cannot ask families to support the school's religious views on sex, gender, or marriage. That, Colorado says, is sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
Now Colorado portrays its rule as general and neutral, but in reality it specifically fences out providers of traditional religious faith unless these schools surrender what their faith teaches about crucial moral issues. As such, the state's imposing a burden on religious families who want a preschool that aligns with their own faith and values, either choose one that shares the government's pro-LGBT views or pay out of pocket. Making people of faith pay more to choose a preschool that fits their family is not religious neutrality. It's religious discrimination. And cases like this will keep coming to the Supreme Court, at least until it overturns its 1990 decision in Employment Division v.
Smith. That allows government to impose burdens on religious exercise as long as it's pursuing a neutral policy that's generally applicable. The court will not be reconsidering Smith in this particular case, but it has been steadily chipping away at the precedent set by it. For example, in recent cases, the court clarified that government cannot exclude religious practitioners from accessing public benefits on the same terms as everyone else. And just last year, the court decided in Mahmood v.
Taylor that even neutral laws must give way to parents' rights to ensure their children's religious education. And by the way, if you haven't noticed, Colorado is on quite a losing streak at the Supreme Court in First Amendment cases. The Supreme Court has firmly rejected the state's attempts to punish and coerce speech from cake artists, web designers, and talk therapists in service of the state's pro-LGBT agenda.
So, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy is just another example for the High Court to protect the rights of people and institutions of faith in that state. And Colorado, of course, is welcome to start adhering to the Constitution at any time. It'll be nice when that happens.
But in the meantime, we can hope and pray that this case will make them 0-4 at the High Court. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Ian Speer. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org.
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