Supreme Court may bless church-run charter schools

What happened

The Supreme Court's conservative majority Wednesday signaled a willingness to allow public funding for explicitly religious charter schools.

Who said what

Wednesday's oral arguments concerned a bid by the Catholic dioceses of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to launch a religious charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, funded through the state's public charter system. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) sued to stop the plan and the state Supreme Court agreed it violated Oklahoma's constitution.

The case, "one of the biggest on church and state in a generation," could now hinge on whether five conservative justices agree that charter schools are "private entities seeking public grants rather than extensions of the public school system," The Wall Street Journal said. That's "significant," The Washington Post said, "because the government can require public schools to be nonsectarian, but it can’t restrict private schools from teaching religion."

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What next?

A victory for St. Isidore's would "extend religion's extraordinary winning streak at the Supreme Court" and "further lower the wall separating church and state," said The New York Times. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself, the only court conservative to suggest "recent high court precedent might not require recognition of religious charter schools" was Chief Justice John Roberts, the Journal said. A 4-4 tie would uphold the state ruling against St. Isidore's. Despite his "probing questions of both sides," the Post said, Roberts has "consistently sided with religious parties to expand the role of faith in public life."