Скачать или смотреть Supreme Court deadlock leaves in place ruling blocking nation’s first religious charter school

The Supreme Court split evenly Thursday in a high-profile challenge over the nation’s first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from Oklahoma’s top court that found the proposed Catholic school unconstitutional.

The 4-4 split was made possible because conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case. Though she did not explain her decision, the former University of Notre Dame law professor had multiple ties to the attorneys representing the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

Religious groups had won a series of opinions from the conservative majority in recent years allowing public funding to be spent on religious education and programming. Critics said a win for the school in this case could have vastly expanded the availability of taxpayer funds for religious schools or, alternatively, pushed states to back away or rethink charter school programs.
Consistent with its usual practice, the high court issued a brief, unsigned order noting only that it had divided equally. The Supreme Court last split 4-4 in 2022 in a far more technical case dealing with when locomotives must be inspected under federal law.

Evenly split decisions do not set precedent, so the religious groups involved in the case will be able to bring another case.

In an unusual political twist, Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sued to block the school’s creation. In a social media post on Thursday, Drummond said he was “proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state.” Drummond said he would continue “protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty.”