The legal case of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which seeks to become the first taxpayer-funded, state-sponsored religious public charter school in the U.S., is potentially headed to the Supreme Court. The Statewide Charter School Board, along with attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, submitted a petition to the high court this Monday. The motion comes after St. Isidore’s Catholic identity led the Oklahoma Supreme Court to declare the contract between the school and the board unconstitutional this past June, as reported by OKC FOX.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the Charter School Board's contract with St. Isidore in October of last year, highlighting the sanctity of separation between church and state. "This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation's first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan," Drummond said in a statement obtained by KFOR.
The case is under scrutiny for its potential to set a new precedent in how education and religion intersect in the public sphere. The SCSB and the school are seeking an answer from the Supreme Court on whether excluding religious schools from state's charter program solely because they are religious violates the Free Exercise Clause or if such an exclusion is justified by invoking anti-establishment interests beyond what the Establishment Clause requires. These pivotal questions were highlighted in the dual filings to the Supreme Court, as noted by The Oklahoman.
In addition to the constitutional queries, the filings ask the Court to deliberate whether academic choices of a privately owned and operated school can be considered state action simply for entering a contract with the state to provide free educational options. These questions are central not just to St. Isidore and the SCSB but to the broader discourse on educational and religious liberty in America. Attorney General Drummond has vowed to continue his defense of religious liberty, iterating his commitment to upholding the law and protecting said rights of all four million Oklahomans, according to a statement reported by OKC FOX.
