A federal court has determined that a Christian school in Colorado cannot be barred from a government funding program for hiring Christian employees and holding teachers to Christian standards. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, issued a ruling this week in favor of Darren Patterson Christian Academy, a Christian school which had previously been prohibited from participating in a state preschool program.

The Buena Vista-based school had applied for Colorado’s universal preschool program, which provides at least 15 hours of government-funded preschool services per week, in 2023, but the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) required the Christian academy to hire non-Christian employees. The CDEC also demanded that the Christian school comply with “quality standards” requirements and adjust its rules requiring that teachers and students adhere to biblical Christian teaching on issues of gender ideology, including school policies regarding bathroom use, pronouns, and dress code.

Late in 2023, after the school filed a lawsuit, Domenico granted Darren Patterson’s request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking the state from either barring the school from its program or adjusting the school’s rules and policies.

In his ruling, published Monday, Domenico wrote that the CDEC cannot refuse Darren Patterson exemptions to its “quality standards” requirement, at least in part because the state grants similar exemptions from similar rules to other religious organizations. The judge wrote that “the ‘quality standards’ provision at issue here contemplates exemptions for religious or secular ‘congregations’ but does not permit exemptions for the religious reasons that [Darren Patterson] has sought here.”

He added that the CDEC “has provided exemptions to others — or expressed a willingness to do so — while denying an exemption for” Darren Patterson. He explained, “The fact that the state recognizes conditions could exist in which it would exempt a preschool from the quality standards, but does not consider Plaintiff’s religious convictions sufficiently compelling to do so here, triggers strict scrutiny.”

Although he acknowledged that “[a]nti-discrimination principles no doubt serve important purposes,” Domenico concluded that the state did not demonstrate a “compelling interest” in denying Darren Patterson an exemption from its “quality standards” provision.

Attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented Darren Patterson. ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus said in a statement Tuesday, “The government can’t force religious schools to abandon their beliefs — and how they exercise those beliefs — to participate in a public benefit program that everyone else can access.” He said that despite the 40 years Darren Patterson has spent educating children in the area, “Colorado officials tried to force it to abandon its religious beliefs — the very reason parents choose to send their kids to the school — to receive critical state funding.” Galus continued, “The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed this constitutional principle multiple times, and the district court has now fully followed up on its previous decision to safeguard this right for religious schools in Colorado.”

“The court’s ruling is a resounding win for First Amendment rights,” he added.