Separation of church and state at risk as Oklahoma case goes before Supreme Court this week
Andrea Eger
Tulsa World
Updated
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond explains how he wins the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School before the Supreme Court: Drummond explains the case and how he plans to prevail during a Tulsa Press Club Town Hall in February.
The Christian women’s activist group Concerned Women for America stand outside the Supreme Court in 2017 as the justices ruled 7-2 for Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri. It’s the first case that proponents of the nation’s first-ever religious charter school in Oklahoma believed opened a new window of opportunity for public funding.
Olivia Carson, then a 15-year-old sophomore, of Glenburn, Maine, left, stands with her mother Amy outside the Crosspoint Church-affiliated Bangor Christian Schools in 2018. The Supreme Court held that Maine violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment by excluding religious schools from a program that allowed parents to direct state funds to private schools.
St. Isidore’s proponents have said publicly that the application for state sanctioning and funding was developed in concert with a religious liberty clinic at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, right, with President Donald Trump in 2020, once taught. She has recused herself from the Oklahoma charter school case.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond successfully challenged the constitutionality of the St. Isidore proposal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2024. In response, St. Isidore and the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Oral arguments are set for Wednesday and a decision is expected by June.
Archdiocese of Oklahoma City officials Lara Schuler, senior director of Catholic education, and Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor, present the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School application to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board at a meeting in Oklahoma City in 2023.
The Christian women’s activist group Concerned Women for America stand outside the Supreme Court in 2017 as the justices ruled 7-2 for Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri. It’s the first case that proponents of the nation’s first-ever religious charter school in Oklahoma believed opened a new window of opportunity for public funding.
St. Isidore’s proponents have said publicly that the application for state sanctioning and funding was developed in concert with a religious liberty clinic at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, right, with President Donald Trump in 2020, once taught. She has recused herself from the Oklahoma charter school case.
State Attorney General Gentner Drummond successfully challenged the constitutionality of the St. Isidore proposal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2024. In response, St. Isidore and the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Oral arguments are set for Wednesday and a decision is expected by June.
Archdiocese of Oklahoma City officials Lara Schuler, senior director of Catholic education, and Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor, present the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School application to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board at a meeting in Oklahoma City in 2023.
Olivia Carson, then a 15-year-old sophomore, of Glenburn, Maine, left, stands with her mother Amy outside the Crosspoint Church-affiliated Bangor Christian Schools in 2018. The Supreme Court held that Maine violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment by excluding religious schools from a program that allowed parents to direct state funds to private schools.
