Are There No Limits to Religious Freedom?

Does a Catholic school have a constitutional right to demand state funds for its pre-K program while refusing to admit four-year-olds whose parents are gay or transgender, when the state requires all recipients of such funding not to exclude children on that basis? You might think the answer would obviously be no. And for most of our nation’s history, you would be correct. The First Amendment forbids the government from abridging the “free exercise of religion” by, for example, singling out religious organizations for worse treatment than secular ones. But does “free exercise” require the government to give religion preferential treatment not afforded to anyone else, even if doing so would require the state to subsidize the infliction of direct discriminatory harm on its own citizens?The Supreme Court will consider that question on Tuesday, in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. The parish challenges a Colorado law that offers state funding for pre-K education on the condition that the recipient not deny admission to any child on the basis of, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity. (I helped Colorado defend the law in the Supreme Court.) Religious schools are free...