It's Friday, May 23, 2025. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and

events from a Christian worldview. Well, what we feared would happen did happen. The Supreme Court of the

United States yesterday released a decision. It's a four-four decision.

And that means that the decision of the Oklahoma State Supreme Court to rule that it's unconstitutional

for a religious organization to sponsor a charter school, that decision stands.

It shows all the difference between the number five and the number four.

Now, you know there are nine justices of the United States Supreme Court. So how could we now

be basically hamstrung in a four-four decision? It is because Justice Amy Coney-Barrant had recused

herself from the case because she had some particular interest that led her to need

to recuse herself. Recuse means she withdrew from the entire case, from the consideration,

and thus from the decision. She likely would have been a fifth conservative vote upholding

the right of religious organizations to sponsor a charter school. Now remember, charter school is a tax-supported

school. The idea of charter schools arose when people were frustrated with the public schools as they

stood and were demanding alternatives. The idea of a charter school is that it is a school within a school

district, and that means most importantly within a state because of federalism,

the states mostly established the rules related to charter schools in their state.

Private organizations could sponsor and could administer charter schools,

and that would give parents the opportunity to send their children to a tax-supported school

that had a different curriculum, a different approach to education.

Now, I am not a huge proponent of charter schools, and I'll tell you why.

It's because they still are about state taxpayer money under the administration of something

that has to be approved by the state, and over time, my sad prediction is that charter schools will go the wrong direction,

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