Last year saw Oklahoma's highest judicial body prevent St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from becoming the first publicly funded religious charter school.

However, St. Isidore responded by filing an appeal with the United States Supreme Court, and it recently decided to hear the case. 

Lawyer for school says parents and children benefit from more choices

According to CNN, the justices announced late last week that they will review the Oklahoma Supreme Court's holding, which found that charter schools must be non-sectarian and cannot "evangelize" a religious faith.

Jim Campbell serves as chief legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative organization which is representing St. Isidore.

CNN quoted Campbell as saying that "Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer."

He went on to add that there is "great irony in state officials who claim to be in favor of religious liberty discriminating against St. Isidore because of its Catholic beliefs."

ACLU joins with other groups in demanding that public schools remain secular

That position is opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has called on the justices to uphold the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision.

"The law is clear: Charter schools are public schools and must be secular and open to all students," the ACLU said in a joint statement with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Education Law Center, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

"The Oklahoma Supreme Court correctly found that the state’s approval of a religious public charter school was unlawful and unconstitutional," the statement declared.

"We urge the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that ruling and safeguard public education, church-state separation, and religious freedom for all," it continued.

Oklahoma's Republican AG opposes publish funding for Catholic school

The statement went on to insist that taxpayers "should not be forced to fund a religious public school that plans to discriminate against students and staff and indoctrinate students into one religion."

CNN noted how Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond previously challenged St. Isidore's right to function as a charter school.

"Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism," Drummond asserted in a statement released last year, adding, "Tomorrow we may be forced to fund radical Muslim teachings like Sharia law."

CNN explained that the Supreme Court is likely to come down with a final ruling on the matter at some point this summer.