By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether states may reject religious charter schools from receiving public funding, agreeing to hear arguments in an appeal out of Oklahoma involving the first such school in the nation.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School applied last year to take part in Oklahoma’s charter school program, which would entitle it to public funding. The state’s top court struck its approval down in June, ruling that charter schools must be non-sectarian and that St. Isidore would “evangelize the Catholic faith as part of its school curriculum.”

The court’s decision could have vast nationwide implications by making it easier for religious entities to apply for and receive public taxpayer money for schools. The case has been closely watched by groups promoting religious freedom.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,” said Jim Campbell, chief legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious legal group representing the school. “There’s great irony in state officials who claim to be in favor of religious liberty discriminating against St. Isidore because of its Catholic beliefs.”

The court will likely hear arguments this spring and hand down a decision before July. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, recused in the case without giving a reason.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has been for years blurring the line separating church and state, particularly in education. In a series of rulings, the Supreme Court has said states may not discriminate against religious schools when dolling out taxpayer funding for certain programs.

Several groups opposing the school, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, urged the Supreme Court to affirm the state’s court ruling against the school.

“Converting public schools into Sunday schools would be a dangerous sea change for our democracy,” the groups said in a joint statement.

The Oklahoma school and subsequent litigation divided conservatives. Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond?filed one of the lawsuits challenging the school.

“Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism,” Drummond said in a statement last year. “Tomorrow we may be forced to fund radical Muslim teachings like Sharia law.”

Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for Drummond, said in a brief statement that office looks forwarding to making its arguments at the Supreme Court.

St. Isidore argued that Oklahoma’s charter school program “invited private educators to participate” and that denying religious schools the opportunity to take part amounts to “religious hostility.”

Trump administration asks court to pause Biden-era appeals

As the Supreme Court is adding its final cases of the current term, President Donald Trump’s administration signaled Friday that some may be removed.

Justice Department attorneys asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause action on four pending appeals — including one involving California’s strict vehicle emissions rules — in the first sign that the new administration is rethinking its portfolio of cases at the nation’s highest court.

Sarah Harris, the Trump administration’s acting solicitor general, urged the Supreme Court in a series of filings to pause briefing in three cases dealing with the environment and one that deals with student loan forgiveness when borrowers believe they were defrauded by a university.

The most significant is an appeal from fuel companies challenging California’s ability to, in practice, set vehicle admissions standards for the rest of the nation. Trump withdrew the state’s power to set those standards and President Joe Biden’s administration reinstated it. The filing Friday is the latest indication the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump would withdraw the tougher emissions standards again, likely rendering the underlying legal dispute at the Supreme Court moot.

“After the change in administration, EPA’s acting administrator has determined that the agency should reassess the basis for and soundness of” the Biden administration decision, Harris told the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s docket is, as usual, full of cases involving federal government decisions and regulations. Court observers have been closely watching for indications that the Trump administration may shift position from Biden in high-profile cases dealing with transgender rights, for instance, or the Food and Drug Administration’s crackdown on flavored vaping products. It is not yet clear whether the new administration will take any action in those cases.

Trump has moved quickly to roll back Biden’s policy positions and executive actions, but he may move more cautiously at the Supreme Court – where the justices generally frown on sudden shifts from administration to administration.

The-CNN-Wire
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