Latham Secures Major Supreme Court Ruling on Public Religious Charter Schools

The US Supreme Court sided with our client, Oklahoma State Attorney General Gentner Drummond, in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, barring the creation of the nation’s first religious charter school. By an equally divided vote, the Court affirmed the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling that an Oklahoma law requiring public charter schools to be “nonsectarian” in their operations is constitutional. Justice Barrett was recused from the case, leaving an 8-Justice Court.

A Latham appellate team represented Attorney General Drummond, asserting that the Oklahoma law constitutionally barred the creation of the nation’s first public Catholic charter school. The case presented the landmark question whether the First Amendment requires States to establish, fund, and oversee religious public charter schools simply because they establish, fund, and oversee nonreligious public charter schools. As the Latham team argued, states may provide vouchers or tuition assistance to parents who wish to send their children to private religious schools, but are not required to fund and oversee religious charter schools as part of their public school system.

Had the Justices ruled against Latham’s client, the decision would have compelled the creation of the nation’s first religious public school. Most Supreme Court commentators nevertheless expected the Court to rule that way when it agreed to hear the case in light of a recent, unbroken series of wins in favor of religious groups and interests. Therefore, the Court’s decision affirming the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling barring the creation of religious charter schools in the state was viewed as a big upset by many court watchers. The decision was also welcomed by many as a check against what they feared would have been a major blow to the Establishment Clause and to charter schools across the country.

The Latham team representing Attorney General Drummond was led by Greg Garre, who presented his 50th argument before the Supreme Court in the case last month, and included associates Jordan Goldberg, Christine Smith, Kristin Holladay, Soren Schmidt, and Lia Rose Barrett.