OK Charter School Board v. Drummond

605 U.S. 165

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: May 22, 2025
• Docket: 24-394
• Status: Published

Opinion

PRELIMINARY PRINT

Volume 605 U. S. Part 1 Pages 165–167

OFFICIAL REPORTS OF

THE SUPREME COURT May 22, 2025

REBECCA A. WOMELDORF reporter of decisions

NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors. OCTOBER TERM, 2024 165

Syllabus

OKLAHOMA STATEWIDE CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD et al. v. DRUMMOND, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF OKLAHOMA, ex rel. OKLAHOMA certiorari to the supreme court of oklahoma No. 24–394. Argued April 30, 2025—Decided May 22, 2025* 2024 OK 53, 558 P. 3d 1, affrmed by an equally divided Court.

James A. Campbell argued the cause for petitioners in No. 24–394. With him on the brief were Kristen K. Waggoner, Christopher P. Schandevel, Philip A. Sechler, Mark A. Lip- pelmann, John J. Bursch, Erin M. Hawley, Caroline C. Lindsay, Andrea R. Dill, and Cheryl Plaxico. Michael H. McGinley argued the cause for petitioner in No. 24–396. With him on the briefs fled in both cases were Steven A. Engel, Brian A. Kulp, John A. Meiser, Meredith H. Kessler, and Michael R. Perri. Solicitor General Sauer argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae supporting petitioners. On the brief fled in both cases were Acting Solicitor General Har- ris, Deputy Assistant Attorney General McArthur, Yaira Dubin, Michael S. Raab, Lowell V. Sturgill, Jr., and Sean R. Janda. Gregory G. Garre argued the cause for respondent in both cases. With him on the brief fled in both cases were Gent- ner F. Drummond, Attorney General of Oklahoma, Garry M. Gaskins II, Solicitor General, Bradley S. Clark, Jordan R. Goldberg, and Christine C. Smith.† *Together with No. 24–396, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond ex rel. Oklahoma, also on certiorari to the same court. †Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal in both cases were fled for the American Center for Law and Justice et al. by Jay Alan Sekulow, Benja- min P. Sisney, Jordan A. Sekulow, Stuart J. Roth, and Andrew J. Ekono- mou; for the Christian Legal Society et al. by Eric W. Treene, Steven T. McFarland, and Laura Nammo; for Classical Charter Schools of America, 166 OK CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD v. DRUMMOND

Per Curiam

Per Curiam. The judgment is affrmed by an equally divided Court.

Justice Barrett took no part in the consideration or de- cision of these cases.

Inc., et al. by Aaron M. Streett, J. Mark Little, and Travis L. Gray; for the Covenant Journey Academy by Mathew D. Staver, Anita L. Staver, and Horatio G. Mihet; for EdChoice et al. by Thomas M. Fisher, Bryan G. Cleveland, Cynthia Fleming Crawford, and Lawrence S. Ebner; for the General Council of the Assemblies of God et al. by Noel J. Francisco and Eric C. Rassbach; for Great Hearts Academies et al. by Denise M. Harle, Nicholas J. P. Meros, and Kassandra S. Reardon; for the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty et al. by Jacob Huebert and Howard Slugh; for the Lepanto Institute by Gerard V. Bradley; for the Manhattan Institute by Ilya Shapiro; for National Religious Broadcasters by Michael P. Farris; for The Rutherford Institute by Jason P. Gosselin and John W. Whitehead; for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America by Lori H. Windham, Adèle A. Keim, Benjamin A. Fleshman, Andrea R. Butler, and Nathan J. Diament; for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Benjamin M. Flowers; for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, Inc., by Richard M. Esenberg and Luke Berg; for the World Faith Founda- tion et al. by James L. Hirsen, Tami Fitzgerald, and Deborah J. Dewart; for Peter Deutsch by Gordon D. Todd and Nicholas R. Reaves; for Charles L. Glenn by Eric N. Kniffn; for Francis Keating II et al. by Miles E. Coleman and Randall L. Wenger; for Sen. James Lankford et al. by Mark I. Pinkert, Jason Torchinsky, and Edward M. Wenger; for John M. O'Con- nor et al. by Thomas R. McCarthy and Tiffany H. Bates; for Gov. J. Kevin Stitt by Jonathan R. Whitehead; for Ryan Walters et al. by Allyson N. Ho, Elizabeth A. Kiernan, Kelly J. Shackelford, Jeffrey C. Mateer, Hiram S. Sasser III, David J. Hacker, Anthony J. Ferate, and Andrew W. Lester; for S. Ernie Walton by Christopher T. Holinger; and for the Wolff Family by Will K. Wright. Briefs of amici curiae urging affrmance in both cases were fled for the Advancement Project et al. by Carmen Daugherty; for American Atheists, Inc., by Geoffrey T. Blackwell; for the Baptist Joint Committee for Reli- gious Liberty et al. by David M. Gossett, Thaila K. Sundaresan, K. Hol- lyn Hollman, and Heather E. Kimmel; for the Charter School Growth Fund by Jonathan Y. Ellis and H. Brent McKnight, Jr.; for Charter Schools by Christopher A. Brook; for Constitutional and Education Law Scholars by Stephan J. Schlegelmilch; for Historians and Legal Scholars Cite as: 605 U. S. 165 (2025) 167

by Charles A. Rothfeld, Steven K. Green, and Eugene R. Fidell; for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools by Pratik A. Shah and Kris- ten E. Loveland; for the National Association of Charter School Authoriz- ers by Lisa Scruggs; for the National Parents Union et al. by Seth P. Wax- man and James S. Liebman; for the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition et al. by Alex J. Luchenitser, Robert Kim, Jessica Levin, Daniel Mach, Heather L. Weaver, Cecillia D. Wang, Louise Mell- ing, Patrick Elliott, Benjamin H. Odom, John H. Sparks, Michael W. Ridgeway, and J. Douglas Mann; for Public Charter School Organizations by Paul E. Salamanca; for Public Charter School Parents et al. by Dallas F. Kratzer III and Shaina Richardson; for Public School Organizations and Advocates by Daniel A. Rubens, Alyssa Barnard-Yanni, Melanie R. Hallums, and Thomas M. Bondy; and for Scholars of the Religion Clauses by Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., and Martin S. Lederman. Briefs of amici curiae were fled in both cases for the State of Colorado et al. by Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General of Colorado, Shannon Steven- son, Solicitor General, Russell D. Johnson, Deputy Solicitor General, Joe Peters, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Abby Chestnut and Dayna Zolle Hauser, Assistant Solicitors General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows: Kris Mayes of Arizona, Rob Bonta of California, William Tong of Connecticut, Kathleen Jennings of Delaware, Brian L. Schwalb of the District of Columbia, Kwame Raoul of Illinois, Aaron M. Frey of Maine, Anthony G. Brown of Maryland, An- drea Joy Campbell of Massachusetts, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Aaron D. Ford of Nevada, Matthew J. Platkin of New Jersey, Raúl Torrez of New Mexico, Letitia A. James of New York, Dan Rayfeld of Oregon, Peter F. Neronha of Rhode Island, and Nicholas W. Brown of Washington State; for the State of South Carolina et al. by Alan Wilson, Attorney General of South Carolina, Robert D. Cook, Solicitor General, and Joseph D. Spate, Assistant Deputy Solicitor General, and by the Attorneys Gen- eral for their respective States as follows: Steve Marshall of Alabama, Tim Griffn of Arkansas, James Uthmeier of Florida, Christopher M. Carr of Georgia, Kris Kobach of Kansas, Liz Murrill of Louisiana, Andrew Bailey of Missouri, Austin Knudsen of Montana, Michael T. Hilgers of Nebraska, Dave Yost of Ohio, and Ken Paxton of Texas; for the Association on Ameri- can Indian Affairs et al. by John E. Echohawk, Melody L. McCoy, and Morgan E. Saunders; for Former Elected and Appointed State Offcials et al. by Joshua Tropper; for the Foundation for Moral Law by Roy S. Moore and Jeffrey Tuomala; and for Jon R. Meador, pro se. Reporter’s Note

The attached opinion has been revised to refect the usual publication and citation style of the United States Reports. The revised pagination makes available the offcial United States Reports citation in advance of publication. The syllabus has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader and constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court. A list of counsel who argued or fled briefs in this case, and who were members of the bar of this Court at the time this case was argued, has been inserted following the syllabus. Other revisions may include adjustments to formatting, captions, citation form, and any errant punctuation. The following additional edits were made:

None