Supreme Court to Review Religious Rights Case That Could Overturn Landmark 1990 Precedent

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new religious rights case that could challenge a landmark 1990 decision, Employment Division v. Smith. The case centers on parents within the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, which operates 34 preschools across Colorado’s capital city.

The parents have challenged a Colorado state mandate requiring church-affiliated preschools to admit children of same-sex couples in order to receive public funding. The church argues that the law violates its First Amendment rights, as it does not recognize same-sex relationships or transgender identities.

The 1990 Employment Division v. Smith ruling established that Oregon could deny unemployment benefits to a Native American employee fired for using peyote—even for religious purposes—because the drug was illegal in the state. Three of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have previously expressed support for overturning this precedent, according to The Hill.

While the Court declined to directly address the 1990 decision, it is reportedly considering narrowing the precedent set nearly four decades ago.

Colorado’s mandate requires preschools to ensure “an equal opportunity to enroll and receive preschool services regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level, or disability.”

"The rulings below give hostile states a playbook for leveraging their vast and growing government funding programs to pressure religious schools and other ministries to abandon their religious practices or else be excluded from the arena."

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, representing the archdiocese, made this argument in court filings.

The Trump administration has also weighed in, filing an amicus brief in support of the church. The administration argued that the U.S. government has a “substantial interest in the preservation of the free exercise of religion” and in “enforcement of rules prohibiting discrimination by government funding recipients.”

This is at least the second time since Donald Trump’s return to office that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Colorado’s LGBTQ protections. In March, the Court sided with a therapist who claimed that the state’s conversion therapy ban discriminated against her based on her views. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, warning that the majority’s opinion “could be ushering in an era of unprofessional and unsafe medical care administered by effectively unsupervised healthcare providers.”