(The Center Square) – U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Colorado Catholic schools in their religious discrimination case against the state.
In 2023, the Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic preschools sued the state of Colorado over its universal preschool program’s nondiscrimination requirement that schools accept all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The petitioners have argued the requirements “categorically exclude” all preschools that operate under the Archdiocese, since the Catholic schools prioritize admission for Catholic families.
A federal appellate court in September upheld Colorado’s requirement, and the petitioners asked the Supreme Court to take up the case in November.
The brief said said the federal government’s decision to file in the case “reflects its views about the severity of the court of appeals’ error, the recurrence of the question presented, and the significant benefit that further clarity in this area of the law would provide to the lower courts, federal and state governments, and the public.”
“The court below seriously erred in adopting a rule that would treat countless laws as generally applicable, no matter how many secular or discretionary exemptions they contain, so long as those exemptions do not permit the exact same conduct as the religious exercise at issue,” said the solicitor general’s brief, which was filed on Friday.
According to Becket, the religious freedom legal group representing the plaintiff, 20 friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed in support of the Archdiocese and its schools.
“The Solicitor General’s filing in this case signals to the Court just how egregious, illegal, and dangerous Colorado’s discrimination is,” Becket Senior Counsel Nick Reaves said in a news release. “The state is labeling a program ‘universal’ and then banning religious families and schools from it because of their faith. If that kind of exclusion is allowed to stand, no religious group is safe from being pushed out of public life.”
Becket said the Supreme Court will likely decide this spring if it will take up the case.
Colorado has seen two other religious cases make their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years. In both cases, the court ruled against the state in favor of Christian baker Jack Phillips and Christian graphic designer Lorie Smith.
