Gentner Drummond’s Bad Choices for Oklahoma

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond (along with its companion case, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond), a case testing whether the free exercise clause of the First Amendment requires Oklahoma to approve a Catholic charter school on the same terms as a secular charter school. The school, and the state charter school board of Oklahoma, argue that it does, under the principles of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020) and Carson v. Makin (2022).

The law is one story in this case; the politics are another. Conservatives and Republicans in Oklahoma should be asking themselves what on earth the state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, is doing siding with legal progressives against the school. Without Drummond’s determined opposition, this case would never have gone this far.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond (along with its companion case, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond), a case testing whether the free exercise clause of the First Amendment requires Oklahoma to approve a Catholic charter school on the same terms as a secular charter school. The school, and the state charter school board of Oklahoma, argue that it does, under the principles of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020) and Carson v. Makin (2022).

The law is one story in this case; the politics are another. Conservatives and Republicans in Oklahoma should be asking themselves what on earth the state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, is doing siding with legal progressives against the school. Without Drummond’s determined opposition, this case would never have gone this far.