News Release
For Immediate Release: 2.16.26
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Colorado “Blaine Amendment” Requiring Religious Discrimination Challenged
Education entrepreneur that distributes funding to innovative schools, which provide choice to parents, faces likely defunding.
Denver, CO—First Liberty Institute and the law firms Miller Farmer Carlson, First & Fourteenth PLLC, and Dechert LLP filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of Education ReEnvisioned and Riverstone Academy asking the court to declare that the state’s ban on funding for religious education violates the First Amendment.
You can read the complaint here.
“Parents have the Constitutional right to seek out innovative government programs and be treated fairly when they do,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel with First Liberty Institute. “Education entrepreneurs like Education ReEnvisioned simply reflect the tradition of the earliest schools in our nation’s history that saw no conflict with the Constitution by integrating religious references throughout their curriculum.”
Michael Francisco of First & Fourteenth said, “Colorado law treats religious schools differently just because they’re religious. This is yet another example of Colorado trying to unconstitutionally punish and exclude people of faith just because it doesn’t like their beliefs.”
Education ReEnvisioned BOCES (“ERBOCES”) is an educational entrepreneur that has provided brick-and-mortar schools, online schools, and homeschool enrichment programs to 14,000 students and families across Colorado for 13 years. After ERBOCES requested funding for Riverstone Academy, a Christian school, it received a letter from the Colorado Department of Education (“CDE”) stating that the Colorado state law requires ERBOCES to refuse to contract with any religious school.
In the complaint, attorneys state: “Colorado law requires the State to unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of religion when awarding government contracts. The state constitution and statutes prohibit school districts and BOCES from contracting with religious schools to provide educational services, in violation of religious schools’ free exercise rights as well as the rights of the religious students and parents who would attend that school.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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