SCOTUS Punts on Christian School’s Right to be Charter School with Comey Barret Self-Removal

Supreme Court splits 4-4, blocking first religious charter school in Oklahoma– www.latimes.com
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WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow Thursday to the conservative drive for religious charter schools, with the justices splitting 4-4 and unable to rule in a case from Oklahoma that had the effect of blocking a proposed new Catholic charter school.

If upheld, it would have been the nation’s first tax-funded, church-run charter school. In recent years, charter schools have proven popular with parents both in major cities and in rural areas, and their numbers would surely have grown if churches or religious groups were free to operate these schools.

The Supreme Court has six conservatives, all of whom were raised as Catholics. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts has written opinions ruling it was unconstitutional discrimination to exclude religious schools from a state’s program of vouchers or tuition subsides for children attending private schools.

Religious-liberty advocates appealed to the Supreme Court last year arguing that it was also unconstitutional to exclude churches from sponsoring a state-funded charter school.