In May 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that blocked approval of the country’s first religious public charter school in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond.[1] The U.S. Supreme Court justices split the decision 4-4, so the decision from the Oklahoma Supreme Court remains as the ruling law. The Drummond case ruling reinforces the First Amendment’s fundamental principle that religion and government must remain separate.[2] As such, the holding confirms that “a religious school can’t be a public school and a public school can’t be religious,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
The case arose out of a dispute that began in 2023 when Oklahoma’s charter school board approved an application by the archdiocese of Oklahoma City and diocese of Tulsa to create a virtual Catholic charter school, St. Isidore of Seville, who would teach Catholic doctrine to students. [3] The school’s contract with the charter school board specifically allowed the school to freely exercise its religious beliefs. The State of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit in the Oklahoma Supreme Court to rescind St. Isidore’s contract, arguing that the contract violates the Establishment Clause and provisions of the Oklahoma State Constitution. St. Isidore and the Charter School Board countered that denying the charter application because of the school’s religious character would violate the Free Exercise Clause.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the Charter School Board and St. Isidore, who then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision without a written opinion.
[1] Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, available at: https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/oklahoma-statewide-charter-school-board-v-drummond/
[2] ACLU, Supreme Court Affirms Oklahoma Supreme Court Ruling Rejecting Nation’s First Religious Public Charter School (May 22, 2025), available at: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/supreme-court-affirms-oklahoma-supreme-court-ruling-rejecting-nations-first-religious-public-charter-school.
[3] SCOTUSblog, Split Supreme Court blocks first religious charter school in Oklahoma (May 22, 2025), available at: https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/05/split-supreme-court-blocks-first-religious-charter-school-in-oklahoma/.