Both sides anticipated a pivotal ruling. However, in an anticlimatic outcome, the Supreme Court issued a brief order May 22, 2025. The 4-4 outcome leaves a lower court judgment in place that prevented St. Isidore’s from opening – but did not explain why.

The case, a major test of the separation of church and state, was an unexpected loss for those advocating a greater role for religion in public life.

The Supreme Court split evenly Thursday in a high-profile challenge over the nation’s first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from Oklahoma’s top court that found the proposed Catholic school unconstitutional.