SCOTUS Will Keep First Amendment Around For Now, No Telling About Later
The court was evenly split on whether taxes should fund a religious charter school in Oklahoma.
In a little bit of a victory for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court of the United States was split 4-to-4 on allowing the state of Oklahoma to go through with establishing the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school — meaning that the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling against the school will stand. For now, anyway.
On the more dismal side of things, the only reason this happened is because Justice Amy Coney Barrett — arguably the justice most amenable to Christian Nationalism — recused herself from the case. This means that at least four of our Supreme Court justices are none too fond of the Establishment C lause.
Justice Barrett did not explain why she recused herself from the case, but it’s most likely due to the fact that she taught at Notre Dame law school for many years and the school’s “religious liberty clinic” was representing St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, one of the parties in the case.
Because the decision was split 4-4, a precedent was not set, meaning that this is not over and there very likely will come a time soon where the Supreme Court decides that, yes, it is just fine for taxpayer dollars to be spent on religious schools.
Arguing against the school’s establishment was Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond — who rather upset his fellow Republicans in the state by doing so. Of course, Drummond did not oppose the establishment of the school for reasons of not thinking tax money should go to a Christian school, but rather because he feared that if that were allowed, they’d have to allow for taxpayer-funded Muslim schools as well.
Governor Kevin Stitt, who is being primaried by Drummond, posted a statement to Xitter, reading “This 4-4 tie is a non-decision. Now we're in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents' rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination.”
Parents, for the record, are very much allowed to instill their values in their children, they are simply (for now) not allowed to use other people’s tax money to do so. This is not hard. It’s also not religious discrimination, because no other religions are allowed to have taxes pay for their parochial schools.
Quite frankly, tax dollars should not be going to any charter schools, period, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The school was to be a virtual Catholic Charter school, named for St. Isidore of Seville, a 7th century church leader sometimes called the “patron saint of the internet” due to his most famous published work, Etymologiae, an encyclopedia of pretty much everything that was known at that time.
His second most famous work, however, was titled De fide catholica contra Iudaeos, or, On the Catholic Faith Against the Jews, in which he repeatedly accused “the Jews” of having been responsible for the death of Jesus Christ and being in some way involved with the antichrist in the future.
I suppose that’s appropriate given the way the internet has contributed to the resurgence of anti-Semitism, but it’s still a pretty messed up thing to name your school.
His “miracles” largely involved the mysterious refilling of things — a bag of wheat after he fed some pigeons, a pot of soup when he and his wife were feeding their neighbors — and causing fountains to spring up out of nowhere, either to quench his master’s thirst or rescue his own child from a well. Also, as he worked as a farmhand, and sometimes angels did his plowing for him so he could pray.
Unfortunately, because we’re still talking about Oklahoma, the state’s public schools are now more or less parochial schools themselves — with each classroom required to post the Ten Commandments and to have a Bible handy.
Catholic schools have managed just fine without public funding for the last hundred years or so and are perfectly capable of continuing to do so in the future. The only reason people like Stitt and Oklahoma schools superintendent Ryan Walters are so rabidly trying to force the issue is because they ultimately want a theocracy where they can force everyone to at least pretend to share their views.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
[NBC News]
Teach your religion IN YOUR FUCKING CHURCH.
| Governor Kevin Stitt ... posted a statement to Xitter, reading ... "There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie."
I dunno about y'all, but I am *REALLY* looking forward to the Satanic Temple opening Baphomet's Sparkly Balls Montessori out there in Oklahoma on the gubbermint dime.