The preliminary injunction lets Ben Gamla pursue a charter but does not approve its application.
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge has blocked Oklahoma’s Statewide Charter School Board from excluding a proposed Jewish charter school because of its religious character.
U.S. District Judge David Russell granted the preliminary injunction Sept. 24 to the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation. His order prevents the board from enforcing the state law requiring charter schools to be nonsectarian or otherwise excluding the foundation on religious grounds while its lawsuit proceeds.
Russell wrote that Oklahoma, having established a charter school program, cannot “single out religious schools for exclusion solely because of their religious character.” He concluded that Ben Gamla is likely to succeed in its claim that the exclusion violates the First Amendment’s protection of religious exercise.
The foundation proposes a virtual school that would combine academic instruction with teaching about Jewish religion, culture and practices. The board rejected its revised application in March under Oklahoma’s nonsectarian requirement and a 2024 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling involving a proposed Catholic virtual charter school. The board did not oppose Ben Gamla’s request for the federal injunction.
Daniel Chen, a lawyer for the foundation with Becket, a religious liberty law firm, said Ben Gamla now has “a fair shot to serve Oklahoma families.”
Lawyers for seven Oklahoma taxpayers who intervened to oppose the school warned that the ruling opened the door to a “dangerous sea change for our democracy” in a response published by Americans United. They said they would continue fighting the use of public money for a school that teaches religion.
In its 2024 ruling, the state Supreme Court held that the Catholic school’s contract violated Oklahoma law and the state and federal constitutions. It concluded that a charter school is a public school and a state actor. The U.S. Supreme Court later divided 4-4, leaving the Oklahoma ruling in place without establishing a national precedent.
Russell reached a different conclusion for Ben Gamla’s federal First Amendment claim. He cited charter schools’ private governing boards and their control over operations, finding that Oklahoma’s designation of charter schools as public schools does not settle whether they are state actors under federal law.
What the order leaves open
The injunction does not award Ben Gamla a charter. In a separate state court petition in March, Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued that the revised application still had “multiple serious flaws.” He accused the board of citing only religion in its rejection while overlooking other reasons it had previously identified.
Russell considered arguments about other alleged deficiencies but did not decide whether the application merits approval. He found that the opponents had not identified a problem that made the foundation entirely ineligible to compete for a charter.
The board’s calendar lists its next regular meeting for Oct. 12. No agenda for that meeting has been posted.
