CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVDN) — West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey announced that the United States Supreme Court today agreed to hear St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a major religious freedom case in which West Virginia led a coalition of 22 attorneys general as friends of the court. St. Mary Catholic preschool sued over being excluded from Colorado’s universal preschool program. The state barred Catholic schools from receiving funding through the program, calling key tenets of their beliefs – about marriage and biological sex – discriminatory.
“It’s a great day for parents, children, and religious freedoms. I’m so pleased the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case. It’s time that these attacks on religious beliefs are stopped. Liberal legislatures and courts cannot override the constitution by passing and protecting anti-religious laws disguised as non-discrimination provisions. I am confident that the petitioners in this case will win,” Attorney General McCuskey said.
The Supreme Court accepts fewer than two percent of cases it is asked to review, making today’s grant of certiorari as significant. The coalition’s amicus brief explains why First Amendment Free Exercise protections apply even when a state uses language that is facially neutral.
Read background in the amicus brief here.
