The case is known as Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v Drummond. It is consolidated with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v Drummond. The Drummond in the case is Attorney General and Georgetown Law School graduate Gentner Drummond (R-Oklahoma).
He opposes the creation of a religious charter school on grounds that it would violate the state constitution and allow for other religions to want taxpayer funded charter schools including some pushing "the teachings of Sharia Law or even Satanism."
The charter school board approved St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School's application to participate in the state's charter school program. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that the board must exclude St. Isidore from the program because it is a religious school.
"Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school," Justice James Winchester, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, wrote in the court's majority opinion. "As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian."
The court's decision was 7-1. Attorney General Drummond praised the decision.
"The framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who drafted Oklahoma's constitution clearly understood how best to protect religious freedom: by preventing the state from sponsoring any religion at all," Drummond said in a statement.
Professor Richard Garnett of the University of Notre Dame Law School senses that, "judging by some of his public statements, Drummond is afraid or is trying to get Oklahoma people to be afraid" of St. Isidore being permitted to participate.
"I'm not quite sure what he's getting at there," says Garnett. "As we see it though, this isn't the case that should really depend at all on whether St. Isidore is Catholic, Baptist, Jewish or Muslim, it's about whether the government is allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion."
Garnett is not actively involved in the case, although the University of Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Clinic does represent St. Isidore Charter School.
