Supreme Court will decide whether Oklahoma can fund Catholic charter school
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the First Amendment allows Oklahoma to fund a Catholic online school as part of its charter school program. (Image from Shutterstock)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the First Amendment allows Oklahoma to fund a Catholic online school as part of its charter school program.
At issue is whether funding the school violates the establishment clause and whether excluding the school from the program violates the free exercise clause, according to cert petitions here and here in the two consolidated cases.
The “blockbuster” cases could “redraw the line between church and state by allowing government to establish and directly fund religious schools for the first time,” the Washington Post reports.
The cert grant follows a 2022 Supreme Court decision holding that Maine could not exclude religious schools from a publicly funded tuition assistance program.
Other publications covering the cert grant include SCOTUSblog, CNN, Law360, Reuters and the New York Times. How Appealing links to additional coverage.
The school, formed by the Oklahoma archdioceses of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, would include religious teachings in its lessons. The state’s virtual charter school board approved the school in June 2023.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that funding the school violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the Oklahoma Constitution and a state law governing charter schools. The decision said government control over the school made it a state actor.
The ruling was a win for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who had opposed funding the school. Other Republican office holders had supported the school, however.
Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School, told the New York Times that a Supreme Court decision that allows funding “would represent nothing less than a sea change in constitutional law.”
“It is difficult to overstate the significance of this opinion for our constitutional order and the larger American society,” Driver said.
The cases are Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. The case pages are here and here.
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