CONTEXT
I have urgently warned about this critically important Oklahoma lawsuit, Oklahoma State Charter Board v. Drummond. This case is about a religious charter school that wants taxpayers to pay for its operations. If the Catholic school wins this lawsuit, it will become the nation’s first religious charter school. Oklahoma refused to charter the school, citing church-state separation under the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The school then sued the state. The school wants to sink its claws into tax revenue streams. That would force taxpayers to seriously support the CN (Christian nationalist) political movement in its ruthless Christian theocracy wealth and power goals.
This dispute boils down to a ferocious CN theocratic attack on the Establishment Clause, church-state separation, democracy, the secular rule of law and civil liberties that God hates and demands an end to, e.g., abortions, same-sex marriage, birth control, maybe inter-racial marriage, DEI efforts, and LGBQT rights and protections. The lawsuit frames Oklahoma’s refusal to fund a Catholic school as anti-religious discrimination, leveraging recent Supreme Court precedents like Carson v. Makin (2022). A ruling favoring St. Isidore would further entrench the Court’s role in legitimizing theocracy, echoing Justice Alito’s assertion in Dobbs (the USSC's anti-abortion rights decision) that secular moral frameworks lack “neutrality.” The theocratic arguments here conflate religious liberty with state endorsement of sectarian dogma. Project 2025 and its judicial proponents want to replace secular pluralism with a regime that privileges conservative Christianity as the de facto state religion. As Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee warns, this agenda “would hasten our journey down that road to authoritarian theocracy.”
TNR reports that in oral arguments, it is starting to look like the USSC will probably rule in favor of theocracy. Such a decision would likely amount to total or near-total obliteration of the Establishment Clause and the waning power of church-state separation doctrine in the constitution and law. The stakes here for democracy, the secular rule of law and what is left of our shrinking civil liberties and protections could not be much higher. Whether people believe it or not, we are now facing a corrupt, horrific, imminent Christian theocratic threat to our country. The decision is expected by the end of June or early July at the latest.
BLOG POST
TNR writes: “The Supreme Court Is Declaring War on Secularism -- The high court’s recent run at rewriting the Constitution has come for the establishment clause. The Supreme Court appears ready to approve the nation’s first religious charter school in Oklahoma, dealing a monumental blow to the separation of church and state by effectively writing the establishment clause out of the Constitution. In oral arguments in Oklahoma State Charter Board v. Drummond on Wednesday, the high court’s conservative majority saw no issue with allowing the Catholic Church to operate a state-funded public school, despite the state and federal constitutional bans on such entanglements. If anything, they appeared offended by the suggestion that it wouldn’t be constitutional.”
Likelihood of theocracy winning: Barrett recused herself due to a blatant conflict of interest, i.e., she has close ties to Notre Dame, which represents St. Isidore, the charter school trolling for tax dollars. The hard core authoritarian four, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh all clearly signaled they will vote for theocracy. Roberts also appears to be sympathetic, but less is strident about it. If there is a 4-4 split, with Roberts voting with the three Democratic Party judges, the charter school will lose and have to pay its own way. A study published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal analyzed 23 religion-in-education cases and concluded the current Court is “statistically likely” to overrule the Oklahoma Supreme Court and permit state-funded religious charter schools. So, if Roberts votes with the other four authoritarian extremists (a 5-3 decision), we’re screwed. Chances of us being screwed? My estimate is ~75%.
Ramifications if Christian theocracy wins: A victory for St. Isidore enables religious groups nationwide to operate taxpayer-funded charter schools. Forty-six states classify charter schools as public institutions, and many have constitutional bans on funding religious schools. A ruling for St. Isidore could force states to either fund religious charters or dismantle their charter systems entirely. A win for theocracy here effectively ends the last major distinction between public and religious education. Given its relentless ideological aggression, states will face intense CN pressure to fund schools teaching creationism, racism, bigotry, e.g., opposing LGBTQ+ rights, excluding non-Christians, the righteousness of discrimination against and oppression of people and groups that God hates, and anything else that CN elites tells us God demands be taught. In essence, the floodgates to hell will bust open and America could fall to some form of dark ages theocratic government and law.
If and how effectively society rebels against the coming CN theocratic onslaught is an open question. What the plutocrats will do about this, if anything, is also an open question. About half of them appear to be CN adherents. The lawsuit’s outcome will determine whether the Establishment Clause retains any force in safeguarding a government neutral toward religion, or becomes a relic of a secular past that CN elites are determined to erase.
Q: Is this just a tempest in a teapot, or if the religious school wins, does this mark the end of the beginning of a fundamental shift in American government and law from being still mostly secular, to becoming a cruel fundamentalist Christian theocracy?