In Attorney General Opinion 2022-7, (Dec. 1, 2022), Oklahoma Attorney General John M. O'Connor concluded that the ban in Oklahoma law on publicly funded charter schools being sectarian or religiously affiliated is unconstitutional. He said in part:
You ask what effect, if any, the Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson decisions have on the validity of the non-sectarian restrictions found in Section 3-136(A)(2) of the Oklahoma Charter School Act. That passage states as follows:
A charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations. A sponsor may not authorize a charter school or program that is affiliated with a nonpublic sectarian school or religious institution....
We believe, based on the First Amendment and the Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson line of decisions, that the U.S. Supreme Court would likely hold these restrictions unconstitutional....
It is important to emphasize, however, that to the extent that neutral and generally applicable limitations may be found elsewhere in the Act, those limitations can likely be applied to religious charter schools, so long as they are truly neutral and applied equally to all charter schools alike.... The constitutional problem is singling out religion, not necessarily the provisions found elsewhere regulating various aspects of charter schools.
The Oklahoman reports on the Attorney General's Opinion.
