The US Supreme Court split evenly Thursday over a challenge to the attempted establishment of the country’s first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court that found the proposed Catholic charter school unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court’s opinion did not explain its ruling. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, similarly without explanation.

The petitioners, which included the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, had appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision from June 2024 that found for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

Two Catholic churches, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, received sponsorship from Oklahoma’s Charter School Board to establish St. Isidore. The Oklahoma Supreme Court stated in an opinion written by Justice James Winchester: “St. Isidore is an instrument of the Catholic church, operated by the Catholic church, and will further the evangelizing mission of the Catholic church in its educational programs.” The court concluded that its existence is unconstitutional since the Oklahoma Constitution prohibits the State from using public money for the use, benefit, or support of any religious institution.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court also found St. Isidore’s contract to be unconstitutional since the state constitution requires public schools to be “free from sectarian control,” and it found St. Isidore to be “a sectarian institution and will be sectarian in its programs and operations.” The court explained that a charter is a public school as per the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act.

Furthermore, the court concluded that St. Isidore’s contract violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, prohibiting public schools “from requiring or expecting students to participate in religious activities.”

The defendants argued that the court would be violating their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion by denying them from operating as a charter school solely because it is religious. The court found that the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause does not apply, stating:

St. Isidore is a state-created school that does not exist independently of the State … St. Isidore was created in furtherance of the State’s objective of providing free public education … St. Isidore further contracted with the State to receive complete and direct financial support for a public charter school–funding mandated by the Act … Finally, St. Isidore is not a religious private school or organization seeking to be treated equally with other private entities relative to a tax credit, grant, or tuition assistance.

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Dana Kuehn dissented on the basis that St. Isidore’s contract does not violate the Establishment Clause and that the court’s ruling would violate the Free Exercise Clause. She began by stating that sectarian organizations may contract with the state for education services under the Establishment Clause as long as they only add to statewide, state-funded secular education.

Justice Kuehn then countered the assertion that St. Isidore is a state actor because “education itself has traditionally been the exclusive prerogative of the State.” Additionally, she argued that the mere fact that states regulate a private entity does not mean that the entity becomes a public entity or state actor. Moreover, she found the Oklahoma legislature’s definition of charter schools as public schools to be a use of semantics that allows it to violate the First Amendment.

She considered the court’s ruling to violate the Free Exercise Clause because by excluding sectarian entities like St. Isidore from operating a charter school over any other qualified entity, it is giving preferential treatment to nonsectarian entities to operate charter schools.

Director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief Daniel Mach shared in a press release: “The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms that a religious school can’t be a public school and a public school can’t be religious.” National Legal Director of the ACLU Cecillia Wang also expressed her celebration of the US Supreme Court’s decision, stating: “Today, a core American constitutional value remains in place: Public schools must remain secular and welcome all students, regardless of faith.”