Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined a 12-state amicus brief sent to the U.S. Supreme Court endorsing the foundation of a religious charter school in Oklahoma.
The brief responds to an upcoming case the court is expected to hear beginning April 30 regarding the constitutionality of a proposed Catholic online charter school in Oklahoma.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in January to consolidate and hear arguments regarding Oklahoma Charter School Board v. Drummond, a lawsuit filed in 2023, by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to block the approval of a proposed Catholic virtual charter school, and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, a counter-suit filed against Drummond by the school.
The school was proposed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to provide free online Catholic K-12 education to Oklahoma residents.
If the court agrees to affirm St. Isidore’s contract, the school would be the first public religious charter school in the U.S.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the school was unconstitutional and struck down its charter approval in June 2024.
“Religious liberty is the cornerstone of our great nation, and our coalition will stand firm as a safeguard against governments that discriminate against religious institutions,” Marshall said. “We will relentlessly fight to ensure that the highest court in the land upholds the right of schools to not be denied public benefits based on religion.”
Drummond, a fellow Republican state attorney general, on the other hand, has also argued his disapproval of the school was an attempt to stand up for religious freedom.
“I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all four million Oklahomans. This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan,” Drummond said in an October 2024 press release responding to St. Isidore’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberty Union has similarly come out against St. Isidore on the issue.
“The law is clear: Charter schools are public schools and must be secular and open to all students. The Oklahoma Supreme Court correctly found that the state’s approval of a religious public charter school was unlawful and unconstitutional,” representatives from the organization wrote in a January statement regarding St. Isidore’s appeal to the nation’s highest court being granted. “We urge the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that ruling and safeguard public education, church-state separation, and religious freedom for all.”
The brief signed by Marshall argues religious charter schools align with the First Amendment’s protections for religious liberty and are also not state actors under the First Amendment.
“Does a private religious entity become a state actor for First Amendment purposes when it contracts with the state to provide free educational opportunities to students who choose them?” the brief reads. “This Court’s precedents clearly indicate the answer is ‘no.’ Instead, religious charter schools promote religious freedom.”
The brief also argues public charters are no more of a state entity than the “many private corporations whose business depends primarily on contracts to build roads, bridges, dams, ships, or submarines for the government.”
Marshall’s office said his stance on the case is, “part of Attorney General Marshall’s broader commitment to protecting religious freedom and expanding educational opportunities.”
“The outcome of this case could set a significant precedent for school choice and the role of religious institutions in education nationwide,” they continue.
Marshall has previously weighed in on public charter school policy this year in Alabama, when he was amongst Republicans who publicly called into question the state’s funding of The Magic City Acceptance Academy, a public charter in Birmingham focused on serving the needs of LGBTQ+ students.
“I think the biggest leverage in these areas that we have is the power of the purse string,” Marshall said during a January appearance on conservative talk radio show, Rightside Radio, continuing, “The legislature determines who gets funded, and how, and to the extent that you have an entity or organization that’s subject to that law that’s otherwise not complying with its parameters, then the legislature has the opportunity to be able to take that next step.”
