Justices Seemed Open to Allowing a Religious Charter School

Briefing|Justices Seemed Open to Allowing a Religious Charter School

The Supreme Court appeared open today to allowing Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school. A decision in favor of the school could lead to the opening of similar institutions across the country and lower the wall separating church and state.

The main question in the case is whether the First Amendment permits states to sponsor and finance religious charter schools. In other words, the Supreme Court is deciding whether charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately run, are fundamentally public or private.

During arguments today, the court’s conservative justices were largely sympathetic to the school, while the liberal ones were quite wary. However, Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case without explanation. That left the court’s chief justice, John Roberts, with the likely deciding vote. He was less pointed than the other Republican appointees but still expressed doubt that religious charter schools were different from other groups the court had protected from discrimination.

The case is one of the most significant of the term, so the court will probably not issue a decision until late June or early July.

For more: The school at the heart of the case, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, is named for the patron saint of the internet. If the Supreme Court permits it to proceed, it would open as an online school.