The United States Supreme Court will hold oral arguments on November 3 in “St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy,” the case that will decide whether the state of Colorado may exclude Catholic preschools from its public preschool program on account of their faith. Legal organization ADF Legal recalled this on the social network X, where it stressed that its allies at Becket will defend the plaintiffs’ position before the justices.
The litigation pits several parishes of the Archdiocese of Denver against the “universal” preschool program launched in 2023 by Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood. According to Becket’s website, the program covers fifteen hours a week and amounts to about $6,300 per child. The Catholic centers were left out because they refuse to submit to a nondiscrimination rule that, in practice, would require them to admit children from families or with identities contrary to the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. The centers had requested an exemption that the state did not grant.
Becket, which represents the plaintiffs, maintains that “Colorado is punishing families who choose to send their kids to Catholic preschools,” that is, that the state penalizes families who choose a Catholic preschool. Among them are Dan and Lisa Sheley, parishioners of St. Mary in Littleton and parents of seven children, five of whom already attend the parish school. The organization also states that more than 1,500 children have been declared ineligible because of their center’s religious affiliation, that two Catholic schools, Wellspring Catholic Academy and Guardian Angels Catholic School, have closed, and that preschool enrollment in the archdiocese has fallen by nearly 20 percent.
The lower courts have ruled in favor of Colorado. According to SCOTUSblog, the Tenth Circuit rejected the preschool’s argument, holding that the state’s conditions were neutral and applied generally to all centers, and it did so by applying the precedent “Employment Division v. Smith” (1990). The petition for review was filed on November 13, 2025, and the Supreme Court granted it on April 20, 2026.
A relevant aspect of the case is that, according to the same source, the High Court declined the requests to reconsider the “Smith” precedent itself. The decision will therefore focus on whether the exclusion of a Catholic preschool from the program constitutes religious discrimination under the First Amendment, and not on reviewing the general doctrine on religious exemptions. The ruling will not be known until after the hearing, but it may set precedent on the relationship between public education funding and the freedom of religious institutions to maintain their identity.
In its message, ADF Legal framed the matter within a series of victories before the Supreme Court against Colorado. It recalled that it has represented Jack Phillips, Lorie Smith, and Kaley Chiles before the Court, with a favorable outcome for the First Amendment in all three cases, and expressed hope that the Catholic schools case will be the fourth: “First Amendment: 4, Colorado: 0.”