Christian academy can't be barred from gov't preschool program for hiring only believers: court
A Colorado-based private academy can't be barred from a government preschool funding program even though they only hire Christians, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico, a Trump appointee, ruled on Monday that Darren Patterson Christian Academy can participate in Colorado's Universal Preschool Program.
The academy had previously been denied an exemption to the program's antidiscrimination provision due to its refusal to hire non-Christians and its expectation that both staff and students adhere to traditional standards of sexual ethics and gender identity.
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State officials lack a "compelling interest" to deny DPCA an exemption to its antidiscrimination provision over the school's "sincere religious beliefs," Domenico concluded.
"[The Department of Early Childhood] has provided exemptions to others — or expressed a willingness to do so — while denying an exemption for Plaintiff," wrote Domenico.
"The fact that the state recognizes conditions could exist in which it would exempt a preschool from the quality standards, but does not consider Plaintiff's religious convictions sufficiently compelling to do so here, triggers strict scrutiny."
While the judge does "not doubt the harm that discrimination may cause to the precocious preschoolers who understand the concept," Colorado's "effort to prevent that harm does not permit it to abridge Plaintiff's First Amendment rights."
DPCA is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that has successfully argued religious liberty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus said in a statement on Tuesday that state officials "can't force religious schools to abandon their beliefs" in order "to participate in a public benefit program that everyone else can access."
"The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed this constitutional principle multiple times, and the district court has now fully followed up on its previous decision to safeguard this right for religious schools in Colorado," stated Galus.
"Colorado officials tried to force it to abandon its religious beliefs — the very reason parents choose to send their kids to the school — to receive critical state funding. The court's ruling is a resounding win for First Amendment rights."
DPCA filed the lawsuit in June 2023, being one of multiple Christian schools to legally challenge the Colorado's refusal to give religious exemptions to its preschool funding program.
In October 2023, Domenico granted a preliminary injunction in favor of DPCA, writing at the time that he believed that Colorado's "non-discrimination policy likely violates Plaintiff's rights by interfering with the school's selection of key employees in accordance with its religious convictions under the 'ministerial exception.'"
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Missouri church daycare could not be prohibited from benefiting from a secular aid program solely because it is a church entity.
"[T]he exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion.
