At the request of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, the Supreme Court has stayed the agency from awarding any contract related to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ mandate that Bibles be purchased and placed in Oklahoma classrooms.
In October, a group of petitioners led by the Rev. Dr. Lori Walke filed a writ of mandamus requesting several forms of relief from Walters’ mandate that teachers instruct from Bibles placed in Oklahoma classrooms. The plaintiffs asked the court for a judgment stating Bible requests for proposal are unlawful and void, a writ of prohibition preventing implementation of the Bible Education Mandate and a writ of mandamus requiring the Oklahoma State Department of Education to rescind the Bible Education Mandate.
The lawsuit names Walters, State Board of Education members, and OMES as defendants. But with OMES tasked with executing requests for proposal submitted by agencies, OMES leaders quickly sought a stay on the execution of any such contract while the lawsuit’s broader questions of constitutionality are litigated.
Chief Justice Dustin Rowe wrote Monday’s order, which primarily addressed OMES’ request. Attorneys representing OSDE and Walters attempted to strike the motions to stay, which they argued fell outside of the court’s scope. The justices disagreed.
“Respondent Walters and OSDE’s motion to strike is hereby denied. It is further ordered that the OMES respondents’ request for stay is hereby granted,” Rowe wrote in the order (embedded below). “The OMES respondents’ work on any new request by the OSDE for the purchase of Bibles is stayed.”
The court noted that OSDE has already withdrawn RFPs to purchase Bibles twice before, but the order stays OMES’ work on an active RFP adjacent to Bible education — “Solicitation EV00000647,” also called the Biblical Character Instruction RFP in court documents. That RFP is for “the purchase of supplemental instructional materials that effectively integrate the Bible and character education into elementary-level social studies curriculum, providing students with a foundational understanding of the role these elements have played in shaping the nation.”
OMES director of outreach Bonnie Campo released a brief statement.
“We are always accountable to the tax payers for all expenditures,” she said. “As a state agency named as a defendant in the lawsuit, we feel it’s important to ensure this process is fully transparent and all parties informed.”
Monday’s order of stay does not grant adjudicate petitioners’ overall claims, however.
“Petitioners’ request to enjoin all respondents from taking any other action to implement or enforce the Bible Education Mandate is deferred to the decisional stage,” Rowe wrote.
At the State Capitol, word of the court decision was spreading Monday afternoon.
“I’m not surprised,” said Rep. Ronny Johns (R-Ada).
Sen. Mark Mann, who previously worked for OSDE and served on the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education, has previously criticized Walters for directing “political theater” of biblical proportions. On Monday, he said he was glad the Supreme Court weighed in.
“I’m glad the Supreme Court’s finally weighed in,” said Mann (D-OKC). “The voters — and I can’t remember how many years ago — passed a state question more clearly defining a separation of church and state.”
Mann said when he was on the OKCPS Board of Education, students could access religious texts from different traditions. He said he has no problem with that.
“Where you step over the line is when you start putting a Bible in every every classroom and tying that Bible back to the curriculum. And you don’t talk about it in context,” he said. “So, I’m glad they finally stepped in, but keep in mind, Ryan Walters will figure out a way to try and get around it. He’s like a bad disease: It just keeps coming back.”
(Correction: This article was updated at 8:35 p.m. Monday, March 10, to correct reference to the Supreme Court justice who authored Monday’s order. NonDoc regrets the error.)
Read the Supreme Court order
