At the end of today’s session, we discussed as a possible topic for next Monday a case argued before the Supreme Court on 30 April: St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. According to a recent New York Times article:
“After Oklahoma’s charter school board approved the proposal to open St. Isidore, the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sued to stop it.
Mr. Drummond , a Republican, said a religious public school would violate the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion and the State Constitution’s ban on spending public money to support religious institutions.”
The school has said it will include Catholic doctrine throughout its curriculum.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in favor of Drummond’s position that allowing the school to operate as a state chater school, which would require the state to provide funding for it, would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as applied to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment. The US Supreme Court granted the school’s petition for certiorari.
Here are links to some recent New York Times articles about the case and about recent US Supreme Court decisions regarding the Establishment Clause:
Supreme Court Seems Open to a Religious Charter School in Oklahoma (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/us/politics/supreme-court-charter-school.html?unlocked_article_code=1.E08._u1U._zTvZ8w3te83&smid=em-share)
A Key Question Before the Court: Are Charter Schools Public or Private? (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/us/politics/charter-schools-public-private-supreme-court.html?unlocked_article_code=1.E08.TpuM.BDhlATqTsLf2&smid=em-share
Will Religion’s Remarkable Winning Streak at the Supreme Court Continue? (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/us/politics/supreme-court-religion.html?unlocked_article_code=1.E08.RKwO.ka_NhZt-Nm9r&smid=em-share)
Highlights: Religious Charter School Case Reaches the Supreme Court (https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/30/us/supreme-court-charter-schools?unlocked_article_code=1.E08.487Z.Qs8DoGrEzCD2&smid=em-share)