St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy is a Supreme Court case dividing the nation. The case reached the Supreme Court in late 2025 and  is concerned with a Catholic preschool in Colorado who has stopped receiving funding from the government. This was due to their discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. 

According to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Colorado has a law named the “Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act” (CADA), which was originally established in 1957. It has been amended multiple times over the years to include things like discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, color, religion, and more. 

In early 2023, the Archdiocese of Colorado, a popular church which oversees more than thirty separate Catholic preschools in Colorado, asked for an exemption from this law, says CBS News. They did not want to allow kids with gay or transgender parents to come to their school, and due to this, were being cut from government funding. The church claims that letting kids with LGBTQ+ parents will breach the religious values that they uphold. Their request was rejected by the Department of Early Childhood, who said that nobody was allowed to discriminate against families. 

Later that year, an official lawsuit was filed by the Archdiocese, challenging the state’s rejection. The lower courts, according to the New York Times, sided with the state, making the Archdiocese case go higher and higher, until it finally reached the Supreme Court. 

The state has a universal preschool program the Archdiocese is a part of. The program created a “nondiscrimination agreement”, making sure each school would not discriminate against families. The Archdiocese argued back, saying that that agreement violated the school’s First Amendment rights. The New York Times states that other schools have been granted an exemption from this law in other cases. In some instances, schools have been allowed to admit only low-income families or disabled children. 

The case will be heard starting in October when the next term starts. The court has a history of siding in favor of  religious groups, as seen in cases from 2018 and 2021 with a baker and social services agency respectively.  

If this sort of backlash spreads throughout the country, it could limit the opportunities LGBTQ+ families have, and lead to a lack of support, awareness, and space to live without judgement.