Supreme Court leans toward LGBTQ exclusion for publicly funded Catholic preschools
The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed inclined Tuesday to rule that the four-year-old children of gay and trans parents can be barred from a state-funded pre-K program.
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children → lean → program
In 2022, Colorado adopted a state-wide program to provide all four-year-olds with an early education.
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Colorado → adopt → education
The program, paid for by the taxpayers to the tune of $6,300 per child per year, was open to all, including religious groups.
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program → pay → groups
The only caveat was that the preschool program had to comply with the state law barring discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, or other categories.
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program → have → race
Although the Catholic Church initially supported the program, and the nonprofit Catholic Charities still participates in it, the Denver archdiocese maintained that compliance with the state's nondiscrimination mandate violates the Constitution's guarantee to the free exercise of religion.
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compliance → support → religion
The Denver archdiocese — though not all others in the state — wants an exemption from the law so that it can obtain state funding while at the same time barring from its program the children of gay and trans parents.
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it → want → parents
The conservative justices on Tuesday seemed likely to oblige their request.
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justices → seem → request
Justice Neil Gorsuch angrily suggested that Colorado was deliberately defying an earlier series of decisions, inquiring whether "we were just wasting our time for the last ten years on those cases.
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we → suggest → cases
And Justice Amy Coney Barrett seemed to question the state's good faith.
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Barrett → seem → faith
"It's hard to imagine that Colorado couldn't have seen this coming," she opined.
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she → imagine → ?
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed, referring to Colorado's law as a provocation.
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Kavanaugh → agree → provocation
"Why not seek the win-win," he asked.
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he → seek → win
Justice Samuel Alito followed up, contending that "we have little evidence of a practical problem.
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we → follow → problem
Little evidence, if any evidence…that there are LGBTQ couples who cannot find other preschools to send their children to."
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who → be → children
But Colorado Deputy Solicitor General Helen Norton pointed to the specific case of a rejected student, and disputed assertions that these schools are easily interchangeable.
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schools → point → assertions
"Think of the parent who needs a school that opens at 7 a.m. so she can get the bus that takes her to work.
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that → think → work
Think of the parent who needs a school that will take all three of her kids, so she doesn't have to shuttle them among three different schools," she said.
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she → think → schools
The court's three liberal justices signaled strong disagreement with the conservatives.
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justices → signal → conservatives
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put her views this way: "There's no principled basis, I think, to distinguish between an entity that says, 'My religious faith says my children can't go to school with the children of gay people,' from a religious entity that says, 'my religion says my children can't go to school with the children of Black people.'"
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children → put → people
Justice Elena Kagan, barely suppressing her sarcasm, added that, "Even though religious people are being treated the same way on the face of the statute, that's not enough.
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that → suppress → statute
They need a special accommodation.
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They → need → accommodation
They need to be treated differently from other people.
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They → need → people
And Justice Sonia Sotomayor directly challenged the lawyer for the archdiocese, Nicholas R. Reaves.
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Sotomayor → challenge → archdiocese
"Bottom line is your school can reject a child because their parents are homosexual," she addressed him.
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she → reject → him
Of the court's conservatives, only Chief Justice John Roberts expressed any skepticism at all about the archdiocese's argument.
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Roberts → express → argument
All six of the court's conservatives were raised Catholic.
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six → raise → conservatives
A decision in the case is expected by summer 2027.
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decision → expect → summer
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