The nation’s first Catholic charter school remains stymied by an Oklahoma court’s chokehold after the United States Supreme Court was unable to reach a majority consensus as to whether or not it is constitutional for it to receive public funds.
Because the Court reached a 4-4 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling against the proposed charter school will stand.
Since the Justices were deadlocked, the opinion released by the Court Thursday contains only two sentences and does not address the merits of the case in any way.
Unlike most Supreme Court actions, the decision released Thursday is only binding for the State of Oklahoma, meaning that the Court could likely hear another case concerning the constitutionality of religious charter schools at some point in the future.
Supreme Court ties are a rare phenomenon, occurring only 164 times in the one hundred years from 1925 to 2015. According to the Minnesota Law Review, the majority of these instances have gone largely unnoticed as very few of these cases were “particularly contentious” in the “eye of the public.”
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Originating in Oklahoma, this case centers on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and its application for public funding through the state’s charter school program.
Although charter schools operate independently from the public school system, they are funded with taxpayers’ dollars and are free for any student to attend.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Roman Catholic, recused herself from the case, although a reason for this decision beyond her religious affiliation was not given. The New York Times reported, however, that Justice Barrett is close friends with a Notre Dame professor who helped advise the St. Isidore legal team.
As explained in its now-binding 27-page ruling, the Oklahoma Supreme Court argued that allowing St. Isidore to participate in the state’s charter school program would result in the State of Oklahoma effectively contracting for religious “teachings and activities” through the school.
“St. Isidore came into existence through its charter with the State and will function as a component of the State’s public school system,” the decision said. “This case turns on the State’s contracted-for religious teachings and activities through a new public charter school, not the State’s exclusion of a religious entity.”
That line takes on contextual significance for Oklahoma, where charter schools are operated by companies aligned with the late Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, and which employ predominantly Muslim males to teach in their schools in that and some twenty other American states.
The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause bars the government from making any laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”
The court went on to argue that allowing a religious charter school in the state would “create a slippery slope” that could lead to “the destruction of Oklahomans’ freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.”
[RELATED: Constitutionality of the Nation’s First Religious Charter School To Be Decided by SCOTUS]
Oklahoma’s Vice-Chief Justice Dana Kuehn dissented, arguing that barring St. Isidore from participating in the charter school program “based solely on religious affiliation” would represent a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Free Exercise Clause states that the government cannot make any laws “prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].”
The United States Supreme Court’s Thursday ruling affirming the Oklahoma Court’s decision did not specify each Justice’s position on this case, although many experts had previously speculated that the Justices would come down along ideological lines with Chief Justice John Roberts serving as a swing vote.
