Deadlocked Supreme Court won't allow nation's first public religious charter school

Yahoo

22-05-2025

The Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on whether openly religious schools are entitled under the Constitution to receive public money through state charter-school programs.
By splitting 4-4 on the question, the justices left in place a lower-court ruling in Oklahoma denying public funding to what would have been the nation's first religious public charter school. But the deadlock sets no precedent on the issue to guide officials in the rest of the country — and supporters of religious charter schools promised they would try to bring additional litigation to the high court.
The court was short-handed because Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has ties to a clinic at Notre Dame Law School that advised the Catholic Oklahoma school, recused from the case. It's unclear whether she would participate if the issue came before the court again in another case.
The court's one-page judgment did not specify how individual justices voted, but it appears likely that a conservative justice sided with the court's three liberal justices to produce the deadlock.
The case centered on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, an online-only institution that wanted to launch as a state-funded charter school. Opponents argued that state funding for the school would violate the Constitution's ban on government-established religion.
Supporters of the school pointed to a series of cases in recent years in which the Supreme Court has allowed or required state governments to fund private religious institutions on par with non-religious ones.
But during oral arguments last month, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that allowing the day-to-day operations of a religious school to be part of a state-run program could create greater entanglement between church and state.
'Those involved fairly discrete state involvement,' Roberts said, referring to the earlier cases involving private schools. 'This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement.'
Opponents of St. Isidore said allowing a religious, publicly funded school would create thorny questions related to potential discrimination in hiring and admissions, as well as how the school would deal with teachers, parents and students who might disagree with Catholic religious teachings.
St. Isidore said it would conform to the state's curriculum guidelines, but critics said that if the school were approved, other religious groups would request their own schools and some would seek deviations from the public curriculum.
'We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation,' St. Isidore's board said in a statement Thursday.
'We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma,' the board said. 'In light of this ruling, we are exploring other options for offering a virtual Catholic education to all persons in the state.'
Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that directing taxpayer funds to a religious charter school would violate the state constitution and charter-school statute, as well as the U.S. Constitution.
Thursday's deadlock has the effect of affirming the Oklahoma court ruling. It's a major victory for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who urged the courts to reverse a state charter board's approval to open St. Isidore.
Drummond warned that funding the Catholic school would open the door to demands for similar treatment for Muslim-run schools.
'This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children,' Drummond said in a statement on Thursday.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State applauded the outcome. 'The Supreme Court's stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state,' the group's president and CEO, Rachel Laser, said in a statement. 'We will continue our efforts to protect inclusive public education. We call on this nation to recommit to church-state separation before this safeguard of democracy and freedom is further attacked.'
Conservative groups from around the country had weighed in to defend St. Isidore with the hope of creating a test case that would change the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment's establishment clause — and clear the way for a new form of public education that supporters argued would advance religious freedom and school choice.
However, the outcome Thursday produced no majority or dissenting opinions to guide lower courts or future litigants. Under Supreme Court rules, when the justices divide equally, the lower court ruling under review is upheld but no national precedent is set for future cases.
"This 4-4 tie is a non-decision. Now we're in overtime,' Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. 'There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents' rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination."