[Episcopal News Service] The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked, 4-4, on May 22 in the case of a Roman Catholic school seeking to receive public funding, a decision that effectively blocked Oklahoma from creating what could have become the nation’s first religious charter school.
The outcome at the court was supported by Episcopal leaders, including the church’s two presiding officers.
“While today’s ruling is certainly a line in the sand and a win for public education and true religious freedom, we must remain vigilant. This case was not about school choice; it was about power, theocratic capture, and the mainstreaming of Christian nationalism,” House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, a deputy from the Diocese of Oklahoma, said in a written statement. “We must attend to the larger threat, which will require us to be leaders of courageous, faithful witness.”
The case centered on a Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma that was approved as a charter school by a state board in 2023. Opponents argued that the Constitution prohibits such schools from receiving public funds because it would effectively endorse a specific religion.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, sued to block the funding, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school. That state ruling stands, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overrule it.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe had joined a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups in a legal brief opposing public funding for the school.
“The Episcopal Church has consistently supported religious freedom for all in a variety of contexts,” the brief says in summarizing Rowe’s reason for signing. “In 1994, the church urged state legislatures considering ‘moment of silence’ statues for public schools to ‘assure constitutional balance’ in their treatment of the issue by ‘carefully considering the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause as well as its Establishment Clause.’”