(The Post Millennial)—The Supreme Court came to a split decision on the matter of a Catholic charter school case Thursday, leaving in place a lower court’s decision to block public funding from the Oklahoma school.
The one-page ruling did not specify how the justices ruled, but did say that Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, resulting in the 4-4 split. Per Politico, Barrett has ties to a Notre Dame Law School clinic that advised the Catholic school. With the split decision, a conservative-leaning justice likely sided with the liberal-leaning justices.
The case centered around the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been run by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. The school would have been the nation’s first religious public charter school. Opponents claimed that state funding for the school would violate the Constitution, while supporters said that there have been multiple cases ruled on by the Supreme Court in recent years in which the high court allowed or required states to fund private religious institutions on par with secular ones.
St. Isidore’s board said in a statement Thursday on the ruling, “We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Court’s decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.”
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