Pennsylvania Court Rejects Catholic Day Care's Challenge To Licensing Rules

In St. Elizabeth's Child Care Center v. Department of Public Welfare, (PA Comnwlth. Ct., Jan. 7, 2010), a Pennsylvania state appellate court rejected free exercise challenges by a Catholic child day-care center to the requirement that it obtain a state certificate of compliance in order to operate. St. Elizabeth's argued that state regulations would significantly burden its religious mission to assist parents in raising their children and forming in them a Christian personality. The court concluded, however, that St. Elizabeth's had "failed to identify any actual or imminent infringement" on its rights.