Supreme Court Rejects Nation’s First Religious Charter School

In one of the most anticipated rulings of its term, a divided Supreme Court blocked Oklahoma from launching the nation’s first religious charter school.

The justices deadlocked 4-4, resulting in them affirming the lower court ruling in the case. The 2024 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling found the proposed Catholic charter school to be a violation of both the Oklahoma Constitution and the US Constitution’s establishment clause, the part of the First Amendment which bans state-sponsored religion.

In 2023, Oklahoma’s charter board approved the founding of St. Isidore of Seville as a Catholic charter school. St. Isidore would be a virtual, K–12 school run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa and funded by the state.