The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday regarding a case on religious charter schools. In hearing the consolidated cases of OK Charter School Board v Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville School v Drummond, the justices appeared open to allowing Oklahoma to use government funds to run the nation’s first religious charter school.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during the hearing, "all the religious school is saying is don’t exclude us on account of our religion. I mean, if you go and apply to be a charter school and you’re an environmental studies school, or you’re a science-based school, or you’re a Chinese immersion school, or you’re an English grammar-focused school, you can get in, and then you come in and you say, 'oh we’re a religious school.' It’s like, oh, no can’t do that. That’s too much. That’s scary. We’re not going to do that."
Kavanaugh said that cases "have made very clear" that "you can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States."
"That seems like rank discrimination against religion, and that’s the concern that I think you need to deal with here."
