CV NEWS FEED // The Oklahoma Supreme Court this week denied a stay request to keep a contract valid for what would have been the first Catholic charter school in the nation, according to an Aug. 5 report from FOX 25.
The denial of staying the contract for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School came on Aug. 5, after the state Supreme Court ruled in June that the Oklahoma-based virtual religious charter school was “unconstitutional”.
Despite the June ruling, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board had put the contract with St. Isidore on hold and had not yet rescinded the contract.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, spearheaded the lawsuit against the Board in October 2023. He sent the Board a letter on August 5 stating that it has “blatantly ignored the Oklahoma Supreme Court.”
Drummond also wrote to the Board that they, “as public officials under Oklahoma law, must immediately rescind the St. Isidore contract as ordered.”
“I expect a vote on recession to be on next week’s agenda,” he added in the letter.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the Board in the case, announced on July 31 that it will ask the United States Supreme Court to hear the case, Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board.
ADF senior counsel Phil Sechler explained in the July 31 announcement, “Protecting the freedom of St. Isidore and other charter schools to operate according to their beliefs bolsters religious freedom across Oklahoma.”
