Supreme Court blocks Oklahoma from funding religious schools

Oklahoma, challenging America's constitutional restrictions on government support for religion, wanted to funnel taxpayer money to religious charter schools in the state. Today the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a lower court's block on the plans, ruling 4-4 to let that ruling stand.

When the supreme court is evenly divided, the lower court's decision stands. The justices did not provide a rationale for their action in the unsigned ruling. It was not disclosed how each member of the bench voted, though it is likely that the three liberal-leaning justices favored upholding the block and if that was indeed the case it poses the intriguing question of which conservative-leaning justice joined them.

The recusal of Trump pick Amy Coney Barrett, who has a professional association with the schools' organizers, likely kept the court from crafting a loophole in the separation clause. The votes weren't named, but commentators suspect Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberals to keep the count a tie—a suprise decision, reports Marina Dunbar.

Organizers estimated in 2023 that St Isidore would cost Oklahoma taxpayers up to $25.7m over its first five years in operation. The Oklahoma charter school board in June 2023 approved the plan to create St Isidore in a 3-2 vote. Oklahoma's top court in a 6-2 ruling last year blocked the school. It classified St Isidore as a "governmental entity" that would act as "a surrogate of the state in providing free public education as any other state-sponsored charter school".