By Amanda Pampuro | Courthouse News
A federal judge on Monday granted summary judgment preventing Colorado from withholding universal preschool funding from a rural Christian preschool based on its religious beliefs relating to gender and sexual orientation that violate the state’s anti-discrimination requirement.
“I do not doubt the harm that discrimination may cause to the precocious preschoolers who understand the concept, or that religious parents with gay or transgender children may suffer if plaintiff is permitted to exclude them from its preschool. But the state’s effort to prevent that harm does not permit it to abridge plaintiff’s First Amendment rights,” wrote U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico in a 15-page opinion.