Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a coalition of 20 states in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The brief supports Darren Patterson Christian Academy, a preschool in Colorado that was excluded from the state’s universal preschool program due to its religious policies.
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood required participating schools to abandon their religiously based policies regarding bathrooms, dress codes, and pronouns. The coalition argues that these requirements violate the First Amendment rights of religious institutions.
“Colorado’s attack on a Christian preschool’s religious beliefs is unconstitutional discrimination,” Attorney General Marshall said. “When a state can strong-arm religious schools into abandoning their convictions, that threat doesn’t stop at its borders. What Colorado is doing today may be used against Alabama churches, Alabama schools, and Alabama families tomorrow. We will not allow that. Parents deserve real choices, not government coercion, and we will fight to protect those freedoms.”
The amicus brief describes the role of religious preschools in providing affordable options for families, supporting underserved communities, and allowing parents more control over their children’s upbringing. It also notes that partnerships between states and faith-based early childhood education providers have existed for years and references Supreme Court decisions rejecting the exclusion of religious schools from public benefit programs.
Alongside Alabama, attorneys general from South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Alaska signed onto the brief.
