May 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday that the state of Oklahoma will not be permitted to create the first-ever religious public charter school with a deadlocked decision only a sentence in length.
The judges ended up in a 4-4 tie as Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.
The decision, without a majority, sets no precedent and therefore leaves the question of legality in regard to whether religious schools can take part in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs unanswered.
It also means that the previous decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that denied a proposal by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to launch an online Catholic school that would have been funded by taxpayers still stands.
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