Split Supreme Court Blocks Christian School From Participating In Charter Program

A deadlocked Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a decision blocking an Oklahoma Catholic school from participating in the state’s charter school program.

The 4-4 decision upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to ban the Oklahoma City-based St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from being eligible. It was unclear how the justices voted, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.

The case pitted the Catholic school against Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who sued the school after the state’s charter school board voted to approve St. Isidore’s participation. Drummond argued that allowing religious schools to take part in the program would force taxpayers to fund schools with religious beliefs they did not support.

“The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma. I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty,” Drummond posted on X after the decision from the court was released.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the school and charter board argued that Oklahoma discriminated based on religion.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,” ADF chief legal counsel Jim Campbell said. “While the Supreme Court’s order is disappointing for educational freedom, the 4-4 decision does not set precedent, allowing the court to revisit this issue in the future. The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear that when the government creates programs and invites groups to participate, it can’t single out religious groups for exclusion, and we will continue our work to protect this vital freedom for parents and students.”

A win for St. Isidore would have struck down a provision of the Oklahoma Charter School Act that expressly forbids religious charter schools and could open the door for more religious charter schools across the country.

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In previous decisions, such as Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court sided with religious organizations that had been locked out of state programs based on their religious nature. In Carson, the Supreme Court struck down a ban in Maine on vouchers from going toward religious schools.

During oral arguments, several justices on the court’s conservative wing appeared to side with St. Isidore while the liberal wing signaled strong opposition.

“You can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, adding that excluding religious schools “seems like rank discrimination.”