Attorney General Alan Wilson leads effort to protect religious freedom

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson led a 20-state coalition in filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a Christian Colorado preschool challenging the state of Colorado’s requirement that the preschool abandon its faith-based policies on bathrooms, dress codes, and pronouns in order to access state preschool funds. He filed the brief on Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

“The radical left cannot force its woke agenda on people of faith. Period. I will always fight for religious liberty and defend our traditional values,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Woke indoctrination has no place in our schools, and that includes preschools. Christians should not be punished for following their faith.”

The attorneys general write in their brief that, “when reviewing a state’s exclusion of religious schools from a tuition assistance program because of the school’s religious activity, the Supreme Court concluded that the program violated the Free Exercise Clause because it ‘operated to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.’”

They also argue that religious schools play an important role in meeting the needs of families, provide options for those families, and that state preschool choice programs can respect the beliefs of religious care centers while meeting the needs of families.

A federal district court ruled in favor of the Colorado preschool, Darren Patterson Christian Academy, and the attorneys general are asking the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm that ruling.

Joining Attorney General Wilson in the brief are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

You can read the brief here.