SCOTUS could be next stop after top Oklahoma court rules on state-funded religious school
A contract providing for state funding of an online Catholic charter school violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the Oklahoma Constitution and a state law governing charter schools, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. (Image from Shutterstock)
A contract providing for state funding of an online Catholic charter school violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the Oklahoma Constitution and a state law governing charter schools, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would have been the nation’s first state-funded religious charter school, report the New York Times, the Associated Press and Reuters.
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa hoped to create the school to participate “in the evangelizing mission of the church,” the state supreme court said in the June 25 decision by Justice James R. Winchester.
“St. Isidore is a public charter school,” the Oklahoma Supreme Court said. The Oklahoma Charter Schools Act “does not allow a charter school to be sectarian in its programs, admissions policies, employment practices and operations. The act’s mandate is in line with the Oklahoma Constitution and the establishment clause, which both prohibit the state from using public money for the establishment of a religious institution.”
A dissenter, Justice Dana Kuehn, said excluding the school from the charter school program violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
The funding issue had divided Republicans in Oklahoma state government, according to the New York Times. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Ryan Walters, the superintendent of public instruction, had supported state funding for St. Isidore. But Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond opposed it before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa said in a statement they will “consider all legal options” following the decision, the Associate Press reports.
The case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the New York Times. Backers of St. Isidore are citing recent Supreme Court decisions on public assistance for religious schools, including a 2022 decision holding that Maine could not exclude religious schools from a publicly funded tuition assistance program.
“We have repeatedly held that a state violates the free exercise clause when it excludes religious observers from otherwise available public benefits,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in that decision.
