(Tampa Free Press)—The Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court, representing an interfaith coalition that includes the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, the Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team, and the Abraham Knowledge Academy.
The coalition is urging the Court to review and overturn the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting religious organizations from operating charter schools in the state.
The legal battle began shortly after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond took office in 2023. He issued an opinion advising the state’s Virtual Charter School Board to deny charters to faith-based schools.
However, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent against discrimination towards religious organizations, the Virtual Charter School Board granted a charter to St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School in June 2023. In response, Attorney General Drummond petitioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court to revoke the school’s charter. By June 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court sided with Drummond, ordering the revocation of St. Isidore’s charter.
During the legal proceedings, Drummond faced criticism for his inflammatory comments about religious minorities, describing them as “reprehensible and unworthy of public funding.” He singled out the Muslim community, arguing that approving St. Isidore’s charter could lead to a “reckoning” where “extreme sects of the Muslim faith” might establish taxpayer-funded charter schools teaching Sharia Law.
The Liberty Justice Center’s brief to the U.S. Supreme Court contends that the Attorney General’s actions are driven by bias against religious minorities, violating the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom.
“Government officials cannot deny opportunities to citizens because they don’t approve of their religious beliefs,” said Dean McGee, Senior Counsel for Educational Freedom at the Liberty Justice Center. “The Attorney General’s actions also impose on parents’ rights to guide their children’s education. Whether that education is religious or secular, public or private, it should never be threatened by the religious animosity of state officials.”
“Public officials like Attorney General Drummond have a duty to defend their constituents’ constitutional rights—not to attack their beliefs, limit their religious liberty, and infringe on their right to access educational opportunity,” said Howard Slugh, General Counsel for the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty.
“Attorney General Drummond has repeatedly made vile remarks opposing the foundation of a Christian charter school and wrongly claimed that ‘most Oklahomans’ share his personal dislike of the 30,000 Muslims in his state. His remarks deeply misrepresent how Americans view their neighbors,” said Ismail Royer, Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute.