Religious Freedom

The ACLU works to ensure that this essential freedom is protected by keeping the government out of religion—whether its involvement is through the provision of tax dollars for religious discrimination or through its decisions about whose sacred texts and symbols should be placed on government property and whose should be rejected. In the past, the ACLU of Colorado has worked to preserve the religious freedom of prisoners requesting kosher diets, and supported the State of Colorado’s position regarding a tuition assistance program that exempts students attending an education institution classified as “pervasively sectarian.” Additionally, the ACLU believes that the religious education of children should be directed primarily by parents, families and religious communities—not the public schools. We defend students’ free speech rights in public schools and students’ rights to pray in the schools.