US Supreme Court signals support for Catholic preschools fighting their exclusion from Colorado's pre-K funding over gay marriage

The US Supreme Court's conservative majority appeared ready on Tuesday to rule that Colorado cannot bar Catholic preschools from its universal pre-K funding scheme simply because those schools refuse to enrol children whose parents are gay or transgender. The case, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, centres on 34 Catholic preschools shut out of a programme worth more than $6,000 per child per year.

Colorado's 2020 ballot-approved scheme funds 15 hours of free preschool weekly for four-year-olds, but requires schools to offer 'equal opportunity to enrol' regardless of parents' sexual orientation or gender identity.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed the Trump administration's own lawyer on whether religious exemptions amount to favouritism, signalling the bench's internal tensions even as the majority leaned toward the schools.