The Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled Wednesday that they may clear the way for the country’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school—St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma.
The case could blow open the door for public money to flow directly into religious schools, and Chief Justice John Roberts now appears to hold the deciding vote.
At the start of oral arguments, Roberts pushed back on some of the school’s claims. But by the end of the two-hour session, he compared the situation to a 2021 case where the Court ruled Philadelphia couldn’t bar a religious foster care agency from participating in a city program.
“We held they couldn’t engage in that discrimination,” Roberts said. “How is that different from what we have here: an education program, and you want to not allow them to participate with a religious entity.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett has recused herself from the case, likely because of her close ties to Notre Dame Law professor Nicole Garnett, whose clinic represents St. Isidore. With Barrett out, the school now needs all five remaining conservatives to vote in its favor.
The three liberal justices voiced strong concerns. Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that allowing St. Isidore to proceed would gut one of the Constitution’s core principles.
“What you’re saying is the Free Exercise Clause trumps the essence of the Establishment Clause,” Sotomayor said. “Because the essence of the Establishment Clause was, we’re not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion.”
The case is the latest twist in a two-year fight over St. Isidore. The school was initially denied approval by Oklahoma’s charter school board. Later, the board reversed course and approved the application. That sparked a legal battle with Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, who sued and won in the state’s top court.
Drummond argues that publicly funded charter schools must be secular, just like any other public school. “Private schools are fundamentally different,” said Gregory Garre, arguing for Drummond’s office.
Charter schools receive public money, are free to attend, and open to all students—but they are run by private groups. In most states, laws require charter schools to be nonreligious.
James Campbell, attorney for the charter school board and a lawyer at Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that St. Isidore isn’t a public school in the traditional sense.
“All we have here is government oversight outside of the organization,” Campbell said. “And this court has been clear… that government regulation from the outside is not sufficient to constitute state control.”
Campbell likened the case to earlier decisions in Maine, Montana, and Missouri, where the Court ruled that states can’t exclude religious institutions from receiving public funds just because they’re religious.
Backing the school is the Trump-aligned solicitor general, D. John Sauer, who took it even further. He argued that parts of the federal charter school law might also be unconstitutional because they bar religious schools.
“The values of private innovation, independence and private choice lie at the heart of this charter school program,” Sauer told the justices. “And they call for the application of the Free Exercise Clause here.”
A ruling is expected by late June or early July. The decision could reshape the future of public education and church-state separation in the United States.
