Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond
Recent Supreme Court cases have been said to have weakened the Establishment Clause, which has generally defined that public funds should not be used for a nonsecular purpose."[2] Oklahoma's then-current attorney general John M. O'Connor and solicitor general Zach West wrote a memo in December 2022, citing Carson v. Makin, as well as Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, in claiming that an Oklahoma law barring nonsecular schools from being part of the state's charter school program was unconstitutional, and should such a challenge reach the U.S. Supreme Court, they would likely agree with this position.The St. Isidore petition had Stitt's support as well as state superintendent Ryan Walters, while the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma said the goal was to create a case that would reach the courts to resolve the question if the Establishment Clause blocked such schools.[4] The bid was initially denied in April 2023 on a 5-0 vote by the board, based on the state's constitution and other statues that disallows the use of public money for religious schools, though allowed for a revised petition.[6] Drummond filed suit against the board in October 2023 with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, challenging their vote; in addition to the concerns that the decision violated the state's constitution and existing laws, Drummond claimed that federal funding for the state public schools would be at risk by having a nonsecular school within the system.