Government · Denver, CO Metro · September 3, 2026
Supreme Court to Hear Case on Colorado's Religious Preschool Exclusion
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case testing whether Colorado can exclude religious preschools from its "Universal" Preschool Program (UPK), according to Denver Catholic. The case began in August 2023, when the religious-liberty law firm Becket sued the state on behalf of two Catholic preschools in the Archdiocese of Denver after Colorado barred faith-based schools from a taxpayer-funded program that otherwise lets families choose public, private, or religious preschools. A federal district court sided with Colorado in January 2024, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling on appeal. In November 2025, the preschools, affected families, and the Archdiocese asked the Supreme Court to intervene, and in April 2026 the Court granted review. The preschools argue Colorado is denying a public benefit — available to every other family regardless of school choice — solely because they selected a religious institution. The ruling will determine whether states can condition participation in general funding programs on excluding religious schools.
Source: Denver Catholic
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
This case reaches far beyond Catholic institutions. Any Christian preschool — Protestant or otherwise — faces the same exclusion under state programs that treat 'religious' as disqualifying rather than neutral. If Colorado's approach stands, states could use 'universal' benefit programs as a tool to defund and marginalize any school that teaches biblical truth about God, man, and morality. This is fundamentally a religious liberty question, not a doctrinal dispute between Catholic and Protestant teaching — the outcome will shape whether Christian schools of every tradition can participate equally in taxpayer-funded programs without being forced to hide or abandon their religious identity. Bible-believing Christians should watch this case as a test of whether government neutrality toward religion is being replaced by open hostility toward it.
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but thou shalt hear the small as well as the great; thou shalt not be afraid of the face of man: for the judgment is the LORD'S. — Deuteronomy 1:17
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From the book
Defensively, Christians have to support legal defense organizations that fight strategic cases to establish precedent, building a wall of case law that protects the rights of conscience. This is Counter-Rule 13 operating across institutions rather than individuals.
— Chapter 20, “The Legal Arena”
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