In a major decision Thursday, a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court let stand Oklahoma’s rejection of public funding for a Catholic virtual charter school.
With Justice Amy Coney Barrett stepping aside, the 4-4 ruling upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s verdict that St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School’s taxpayer funding violated constitutional boundaries, Fox News reported.
The lack of a majority meant no national precedent was set—but it sure slammed the door shut, at least in Oklahoma, on what would have been the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country.
St. Isidore, which pledges allegiance to academic standards and the doctrines of the Catholic Church, received a green light from the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board in June 2023. That approval positioned it to receive public dollars.
In agreeing to “comply with local, state, and federal education laws,” the school also affirmed it “fully embraces the teachings” of its Catholic mission. Therein lies the rub—and the opening for litigation.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court subsequently halted St. Isidore’s funding, ruling that giving state money to a religious institution transgressed the Establishment Clause. Secularism trumped school choice, at least in this round.
With the case elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2024, many watched closely to see how far religious liberty might stretch in the charter space. In April, over two hours of oral arguments laid bare the ideological rift.
The justices grappled with two key issues: whether charter schools are extensions of the public system (making them bound by the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause) or something more akin to independent contractors. St. Isidore leaned hard into the latter. The second question centered on whether Oklahoma, by blocking the school, was unfairly burdening the free exercise of religion—a concern that has swung decisions in recent cases involving church-affiliated services.
Liberal justices—Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan—pressed attorneys on how a devoutly Catholic school could responsibly serve all students, regardless of religious background.
And that’s the progressive trap: accept all students like a public school is required to, but without a secular curriculum, expect lawsuits from every direction. For some on the left, religion in a school classroom is a bigger problem than drugs in one. Ultimately, with Barrett recused and the rest of the Court split evenly, the Supreme Court punted. “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court,” the ruling read. Translation: no consensus, no override.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who led the charge against state funding for St. Isidore, called the proposed charter an “unlawful sponsorship” of a sectarian institution. He didn’t mince words.
Drummond painted a grim picture, warning the move was a “serious threat to the religious liberty of all four million Oklahomans.” That message hits differently when you’re watching public dollars blur the lines between pulpit and podium.
Religious freedom, in his view, doesn’t mean entangling the church with state money. But critics see a one-way street—where secular preferences are subsidized, and anything faith-based is defunded on sight.
Because the Supreme Court didn’t issue a definitive ruling, the Oklahoma decision stands, but the broader legal question remains unresolved across other states. The tug-of-war between parental rights, religious liberty, and state neutrality isn’t over.
What’s clear is that schools like St. Isidore face a paradox—asked to operate as “traditional public schools” while simultaneously being cast as unacceptable when they don’t bow at the altar of secularism. Turns out, even voluntary evangelism is too much for some bureaucrats, so long as the taxpayer is footing the bill.
