We will hear argument this morning in case 24394, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board

versus Drummond and the consolidated case.

Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.

Oklahoma's charter school program relies on private organizations to create more educational options,

and it empowers those groups to innovate by giving them broad autonomy over their mission,

curriculum, and operations.

Fueled by private ingenuity, those schools are thriving, as they specialize in diverse

subjects like Native American culture and environmental stewardship.

But state law categorically bars religious groups and programs, deeming religion to be the wrong kind of diversity.

That religious exclusion violates the free exercise clause.

This court has held three times in the last eight years

that when a state creates a public program and invites private actors, it can't exclude

people or groups because they're religious. The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board is

committed to this principle of religious neutrality. That's why it approved St. Isidore's application based on the strength of its proposal,

refusing to reject the group because of its faith.

But respondent won't tolerate groups like St. Isidore operating in the program, so he sued

to exclude them.

He now argues that the First Amendment, specifically the Free Exercise Clause, is irrelevant because St. Isidore is part of the

government. But it's not. St. Isidore was privately created by two Catholic organizations, and it is

controlled by a privately selected Board of Directors.

Under this Court's test, St. Isidore is neither the government nor engaged in state action.

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