Judge rejects disqualification in case of charter school
The judge assigned to hear a case that could determine the fate of the nation’s first state-approved and taxpayer-funded religious charter school has rejected a motion to bar his participation.
In a short hearing with attorneys Thursday morning, District Judge Brent Dishman declined to support a motion that would have disqualified him from deciding whether St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School can receive taxpayer money.
The motion to disqualify Dishman was filed by the plaintiffs, a group of taxpayers who are challenging the state’s decision in October to authorize St. Isidore as a charter school.
They asked for the disqualification because of personal relationships on both sides of the case: His sister-in-law is co-founder of one of the plaintiff organizations, the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition. Dishman also serves on the board of College of the Ozarks, a private religious school that previously hired several of the defense attorneys in a separate case with similar issues.
It’s not clear whether OKPLAC will appeal Dishman’s ruling in another attempt to get a new judge.
Dishman ruled in one of two lawsuits challenging the use of Oklahoma taxpayer funds for the religious school.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed his own lawsuit at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in October. That suit was filed after the board, by a 3-2 vote, approved the creation of St. Isidore as a charter school.
The questions presented in the two cases could very well end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Several of the attorneys in the taxpayer case represent national groups that have been fighting in courts for decades over church-state issues, and recent court decisions were seen as the green light for church leaders to ask Oklahoma for the charter school.