Presiding bishop joins Supreme Court brief opposing public funding of religious schools

Update: The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked, 4-4, in the case on May 22, blocking the Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma from receiving public funding.

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe has joined other interfaith denominational leaders in signing a “friend of the court” brief opposing government funding of religious charter schools in a case that will be heard this month by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case centers on a Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma that was approved by a state board in 2023 to become what was said to be the nation’s first religious charter school. Opponents, however, have argued that the Constitution prohibits such schools from receiving public funds because it would effectively endorse a specific religion.

The school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, promotes itself as providing “an authentically Catholic education, forming students to be engaged, productive and conscientious members of their community.” After it was approved as a state-funded charter school, however, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, sued to block the funding.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school, which is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court will hear the case on April 30.

Rowe was joined in filing the Supreme Court brief opposing the charter school funding by a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups. The brief argues that using funds to support a religious school runs counter to historical norms in the United States and violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from enacting laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”

“If St. Isidore is functionally a public school, as the Oklahoma Supreme Court held, then it is flatly unconstitutional for the state to fund its religious mission,” the interfaith leaders say in their brief.

“The Episcopal Church has consistently supported religious freedom for all in a variety of contexts,” the brief says in summarizing Rowe’s reason for signing. “In 1994, the church urged state legislatures considering ‘moment of silence’ statues for public schools to ‘assure constitutional balance’ in their treatment of the issue by ‘carefully considering the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause as well as its Establishment Clause.’”

Due to timing constraints, House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris was unable to join the brief before it was filed, according to a church spokesperson, though she issued a statement in support of the action.

“As a church, we have a responsibility to speak with moral clarity in the face of the rising tide of Christian nationalism and its dangerous ties to white supremacy,” Ayala Harris said. “Public funding of religious charter schools is not a neutral act – it erodes both public education and the constitutional safeguards that protect true religious liberty.”

Ayala Harris also spoke as a resident of Oklahoma and alluded to the role Christian nationalism played in inspiring the Oklahoma City bombing 30 years ago. “I am deeply aware of what’s at stake when government entangles itself with sectarian interests,” she said. “It threatens our democracy, our schools, and our shared future.”