In 2023, the Charter School Board in Oklahoma approved St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School. Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R), however, filed a lawsuit saying that while he defends the religious liberty of all Oklahomans, this "unconstitutional" act to create the nation's first state sponsored religious charter school would "open the floodgates" and force taxpayers to fund all kinds of religious schools, from radical Islam to the Church of Satan.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school in June.
First Liberty Institute says St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School is being excluded from receiving publicly available benefits simply because it is a religious school.
"That's not a basis upon which the Supreme Court has said that a state may exclude an organization from participating in the program," says Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute.
He references the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Carson v. Makin, a case in which First Liberty was involved alongside Institute for Justice. Parents wanted to send their kids to accredited religious schools after Maine enacted a program of tuition assistance for those who live in school districts that neither operate a secondary school of their own nor contract with a particular school in another district.
"Basically, it says the government, like a state, cannot discriminate against a religious school from participating in an otherwise available program," Sasser reports, summarizing the ruling.
In Oklahoma, where St. Isidore is located, the attorney says anyone can start a virtual charter school; the only reason why this particular school is being discriminated against is "simply because it's religious."
"We want the Supreme Court to take up this case and reverse the Oklahoma Supreme Court," says Sasser. "They can do it … in a summary fashion, or they can grant oral argument, but whatever path they take, they needed to reverse what the Oklahoma Supreme Court did."
The Oklahoma Supreme Court, he says, was in "total violation" of the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution.
