The Supreme Court ruled Thursday against allowing Oklahoma’s first religious public charter school, in a case that has significant implications for religion in public life.
The court ruled 4-4 in Oklahoma State Charter School Board v. Drummond, after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. The unsigned ruling offered no opinion on the merits, saying only that Justice Barrett took no part in the decision.
“The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court,” the ruling read in full.
The case, which education advocates worried would pave the way for further erosion of the separation between church and state, was brought by a right-wing legal fund, which petitioned the high court to take it up after the Oklahoma supreme court stopped a Catholic church from receiving taxpayer funds to establish a religiously affiliated school. Today’s decision will keep the lower court’s ruling barring the school funding in place.
However, it is not a permanent ruling — because the decision is a tie it simply affirms the lower court decision, the ruling is precedent only in the state of Oklahoma, meaning a case on this same topic could return to the Supreme Court at another time.
