A State Changed Its Dual-Enrollment Rules. It Sparked a Fight Over Religious Freedom.

Why are two colleges suing their state over a change to its dual-enrollment program? The fight mostly boils down to this: whether high-school students have the right to take college courses, supported by state funds, at the campus of their choice — regardless of their faith. The bigger picture, experts say, involves recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and a series of similar standoffs nationwide over the rights of religious institutions. Last week, two Minnesota colleges joined two families in a lawsuit against Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, claiming that a provision in the state’s new budget is an infringement on religious liberty.