In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. Supreme Court has left in place a state ruling blocking the nation’s first religious charter school. The evenly divided decision—4-4—was issued Thursday, May 22, in the case of St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School, a Catholic institution proposed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa.
At the heart of the case was a pivotal question: Can a religious institution operate a charter school using public funds without violating the Constitution’s Establishment Clause? The justices were split, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself due to personal ties to a Notre Dame law professor who previously advised the Catholic Church in Oklahoma. Because no majority emerged, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling stands.
“This decision is a significant loss for religious rights advocates,” said USA Today, which noted that it comes after a “string of victories from the high court including the steady expansion of aid to faith-based schools.”
The proposed St. Isidore school would have offered a K–12 Catholic curriculum and operated online. The Catholic dioceses argued that once the state allowed charter schools to be operated by private entities, denying a religious group the same opportunity amounted to religious discrimination. “Once the state allowed private entities to operate charter schools, blocking the Catholic Church from doing so would unconstitutionally discriminate against religion,” USA Today reported.
The Church’s legal team emphasized that attendance at the school would be voluntary, so “the government is not imposing religion on anyone.” The U.S. Department of Justice, under the Trump administration, had previously taken the position that such schools should be allowed, stating Oklahoma “can’t bar religious charter schools.”
Still, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, also a Republican, filed suit to stop the school, warning that approval would “open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan.”
The Oklahoma Supreme Court had ruled 6–2 that the charter school would violate the state’s constitutional requirement that public education be secular. “Oklahoma’s charter schools bear all of the hallmarks of a public school,” Drummond told the U.S. Supreme Court, insisting that charter schools are publicly funded and therefore must remain nonsectarian. He also warned that redefining charter schools could “create chaos and confusion for millions of charter-school students.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, often the swing vote in closely watched religious liberty cases, appeared cautious. According to USA Today, Roberts seemed to view religious charter schools as a “more complex situation” than previous rulings where the court had expanded public funding for religious education.
For Catholic audiences, the ruling is deeply consequential. It puts into sharp relief the ongoing legal and cultural struggle over the role of faith in public life. While private school choice programs have gained traction, this case indicates the boundaries of what’s possible in blending religious education with public funding—at least for now.
Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute offered one possible path forward: “The right way to address discrimination against religion by our public education system is through private school choice programs, not charters,” he said.
This was one of three major religious liberty cases the Supreme Court has taken up this year. Others include whether Maryland parents may excuse their children from LGBTQ-themed classroom materials and whether a Wisconsin Catholic charity qualifies for employment tax exemption.
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