Supreme Court Appears Open to Religious Charter School

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Excluding the religious applicant from a general state program, in which St. Isidore would receive an estimated $2.7 million in state funding in its first year, "seems like rank discrimination against religion.
58% : Kavanaugh said he thought charter schools "were built on the idea that innovative approaches to education would increase the quality of education in a particular community.
56% : Garre stressed repeatedly that charter schools have been considered public schools since their inception in the 1990s, both under the federal law authorizing aid to them and under the laws of the now-47 states that permit them.
54% : "The point of the charter school program, as I understand it, is to confer a lot of flexibility on the charter schools so that they offer a real alternative to the public schools," he said Alito peppered Garre with questions about themed charter schools that might seek to inculcate certain secular ideas, such as one based on a pro-LGBTQ+ outlook, "to send the message that this is a perfectly legitimate lifestyle?"
51% : " D. John Sauer, appearing for the first time as U.S. solicitor general for President Donald Trump, argued that "providing education through charter schools is not a traditional and exclusive public function." "The values of private innovation, independence, and private choice lie at the heart of this charter school program, and the call for the application of the free exercise clause," he said.
51% : "Charter schools are like public schools, traditional public schools.
49% : He was the author of the majority opinions in three recent decisions -- the 2017 ruling in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, its 2020 decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and its 2022 ruling in Carson v. Makin -- that all overturned state exclusions of religious schools from generally available aid programs.
49% : They are meant "to expand educational opportunities within the public school system, and have been recognized as and indeed are required to be public schools by the Congress of the United States and the legislatures of 47 states," Garre said.
46% : Teaching religion "as truth in public school is not allowed," he said, and the advocates of St. Isidore are seeking not access to the state program on equal terms but "special status: the right to establish a religious charter school plus an exemption from the nondiscrimination requirements that apply to every other charter school and that distinguish public schools from private schools.
41% : But Roberts later in the argument cited a 2021 decision in which the court sided with a Catholic social service agency on its free exercise of religion challenge to being excluded as a foster care provider because of its refusal to certify same-sex couples.

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