Three Observations on the Catholic Charter School Case

Frederick Mark Gedicks is emeritus professor of law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed, by a four-to-four vote, a decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that the state could not fund a Catholic virtual charter school because this would violate anti-establishment provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Drummond ex rel. State v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, 2024 OK 53, 558 P.3d 1 (6–2 dec.), aff’d by equally divided ct., Nos. 24-394 & -396 (U.S. May 22, 2025) (per curiam), 2025 WL 1459364. (Paragraph numbers below correspond to the official report of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.)

(more…)

Continue ReadingThree Observations on the Catholic Charter School Case

Individual Spirituality and Establishment

Jeremy Patrick is a Lecturer for the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice

In a previous piece on the ICLRS blog, I argued that the legal understanding of freedom of religion should be extended and interpreted to encompass individual spirituality. The beliefs of the “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) may be very different than the traditional understanding of religion as a hierarchical, institutional, fixed set of beliefs about God that impose duties on believers, but I suggested that, nonetheless, the spiritual views of “SBNRs” should be given respect and protection. But from a constitutional perspective, freedom of religion is just one side of the coin. What about the other side: establishment of religion? In what follows, I intend to sketch the contours of how individual spirituality may interact with constitutional guarantees of non-establishment.

(more…)

Continue ReadingIndividual Spirituality and Establishment