U.S. Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Catholic Charter School Case

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case involving two Catholic dioceses seeking to establish the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school.

Last October, the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma and its board requested the Supreme Court review the case after the state’s highest court denied the school’s opening. In its filing, the court agreed to revive the case, setting a schedule that could lead to a decision potentially by early summer.

With one hour granted for oral arguments in the writ of certiorari, petitioners’ briefs are ordered to be filed before March 5 with respondent’s briefs ordered to be filed on or before March 31.

In June 2023, Oklahoma’s virtual charter school board voted to approve the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school. A year later, however, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled the move unconstitutional.

As a result, Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond blocked its funding, calling the decision “an irreparable violation of our individual religious liberty” and “an unthinkable waste of our tax dollars.”

The state’s highest court also found the charter violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

“Because it is a governmental entity and a state actor, St. Isidore cannot ignore the mandates of the Establishment Clause, yet a central component of St. Isidore’s educational philosophy is to establish and operate the school as a Catholic school,” the court