Split US Supreme Court blocks religious charter school

Will the court wrestle with families that are not Catholic sending their kids to this charter school and will they get to object to the teaching of religion?"

Theoharis, also in his statement to Newsweek

Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer. While the Supreme Court's order is disappointing for educational freedom, the 4-4 decision does not set precedent, allowing the court to revisit this issue in the future."

Jim Campbell—chief legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who argued on behalf of Oklahoma's charter school board to the Supreme Court—in comments to AP

Daniel Machfrench politician

The very idea of a religious public school is a constitutional oxymoron. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms that a religious school can’t be a public school and a public school can’t be religious,

said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief

All the religious school is saying is, ‘Don’t exclude us on account of our religion,'

he said

The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court,

the court wrote in its one-sentence, unsigned opinion

The consequences of the Court’s rapid transformation of the Religion Clauses must not be understated,

she wrote at the time

We have an educational crisis and my opinion is that we need everybody to join in and help,

Brian Shellum, Chair of the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, told PBS NewsHour in early May

We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma,

the board said

The Supreme Court’s stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state,

the group’s president and CEO, Rachel Laser, said in a statement

Gentner Drummondoklahoma Attorney General

This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children,

Drummond said in a statement on Thursday

John Robertschief Justice

Those involved fairly discrete state involvement,

Roberts said, referring to the earlier cases involving private schools

Brett Kavanaughjustice

No one’s compelled to go,

Kavanaugh said

Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,

the court said in its opinion