Newsweek reports that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new case filed by Catholic preschools in Colorado that argue the state violated their rights by excluding them from a state-funded program because of their admission policies regarding lesbian, gay and transgender families.
A journalist for the publication spoke with Ryan Thoreson, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. His scholarship covers the legal and social regulation of gender and sexuality and spans constitutional law, comparative and international law, and human rights law.
Thoreson told Newsweek the "broad question posed in this case is whether the state of Colorado must provide public funding to religious preschool providers even though the providers say they will not comply with the program's nondiscrimination requirements."
"Since Employment Division v. Smith, decided in 1990, the Court has said that when a law like the nondiscrimination law is neutral and generally applicable, meaning that it applies to everyone and doesn't single out religion, it is typically permissible under the First Amendment," Thoreson told Newsweek.
He added that the case has been a "target for years."
The court did not "expressly grant certiorari" on the question of whether to overturn Smith but instead took two other questions around what kinds of exceptions a state can grant on secular grounds before a law isn't considered generally applicable, according to Thoreson. The second question centers around when courts should apply heightened review.
Thoreson told Newsweek that the court has been increasingly supportive of religious litigants asserting the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion while downplaying the state's compelling interest in requiring religious litigants to comply with protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Thoreson added during his Newsweek interview that a broad ruling in the case could mean that anytime a state entity partners with private groups to deliver services, granting exceptions for "secular entities" would "also allow religious entities to get an exception to discriminate against certain program recipients or decline to provide certain services."
Read the full story on the Newsweek website online.
Learn more about UC's Ryan Thoreson online.
Featured top image of a preschool from Istock.
