If attorneys for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtue School have their way, Oklahoma could become the birthplace of the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest test case, with proponents for and against the Catholic charter school all alleging infringements of the First Amendment right to exercise religion freely. Along with a laundry list of religious institutes and Republican attorneys general, Gov. Kevin Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters have written amici curiae briefs in support of St. Isidore.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond contends using public funding for religious charter schools is a violation of Oklahomans’ religious liberties, one of many points of contention between the attorney general and the state superintendent. After the AG’s office declined to renew the contract of the attorney representing the State Board of Education, the board has hired new counsel after expressing distrust toward a temporary attorney — who was sent straight from the AG’s office.
Meanwhile, Walters announced the purchase of more than 500 Bibles on Thursday to be used in advanced placement government classrooms. Later that afternoon, he asked state superintendents to send students and parents an 85-second video of him praying “in particular” for President-elect Donald Trump and railing against “woke teachers unions” and the “radical left.”
Below, you can read about all of that and more, including official state correspondence on the TikTok-viral sport that simply involves slapping people.
St. Isidore SCOTUS pitch backed by Stitt, Walters
After the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared in June that a religious charter school would violate the Oklahoma Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Diocese of Tulsa and the Statewide Charter School Board are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case and reverse the ruling.
Arguing the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision ultimately amounts to religious discrimination, attorneys for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School filed their petition Oct. 7. Attorneys for the Statewide Charter School Board filed a separate petition the same day.
“Oklahoma has denied [a] generally available benefit to religious educators — for no other reason than that they are religious,” attorneys for the proposed St. Isidore school wrote. “This court has repeatedly condemned that sort of religious hostility.”
The legal fight over what could become the first religious charter school in America has unfolded for more than a year. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Diocese of Tulsa jointly filed an application in 2023 to operate St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board eventually approved. (The SVCSB became the Statewide Charter School Board on July 1.)
Charter schools are public schools that can be privately run by management companies. They are prohibited from charging tuition, and they receive state and federal funding.
After St. Isidore’s approval, Attorney General Gentner Drummond challenged the school’s contract with the SVCSB before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and he succeeded in getting a majority of the court to agree that the SVCSB should cancel its contract with the school.
Now, both St. Isidore and the SCSB have filed separate petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking justices to take up the case and declare that charter schools are not state actors and that they can be religious without violating the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and two former Oklahoma attorneys general have filed amici briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
“Gov. Stitt is compelled to speak on behalf of Oklahomans through this brief because the Oklahoma attorney general has deprived them of a true advocate by launching this attack against their religious liberty and educational freedom,” Stitt’s attorneys wrote in his brief.
Besides Stitt and Walters, dozens of other organizations, individuals and states have filed amici briefs supporting the petitioners. Those include:
- The Oklahoma State Department of Education and the State Board of Education;
- Former Attorneys General John O’Connor and Scott Pruitt;
- The attorneys general of South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and Utah;
- The Manhattan Institute;
- The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty;
- The Buckeye Institute;
- The General Counsel of the Assemblies of God;
- The Coalition for Jewish Values;
- The Religious Freedom Institute;
- Classical Charter Schools of America;
- Pinnacle Classical Academy;
- North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools;
- Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence;
- The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty; and
- Abraham Knowledge Academy.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has until Dec. 9 to respond to the petitions and amici briefs. After that, the court will review the case. Four of the nine SCOTUS justices must agree to take up the case in order for the court to eventually make a ruling on it.
Drummond issues slap-fighting opinion
On Nov. 7, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a formal opinion affirming the State Athletic Commission’s authority to regulate slap fighting.
Commissioners requested the opinion at their July meeting. The commission regulates combative sports in the state but has yet to promulgate any rules for slap fighting, a relatively new phenomenon wherein opponents stand feet apart from each other and take turns slapping each other until the match concludes or one of the contestants is knocked out.
“You’re striking your opponent without the opponent doing anything to protect themselves, and so I think when you do that, I think you actually take the sport out of it,” Chairman Mike Bower said during the July 10 meeting. “Where’s the sport? It’s not like you’re blocking the blow or anything like that. You’re basically just trying to show that you can sustain being hit by an opponent without any protection. And so, I’ve got some concerns. One of our No. 1 responsibilities is the safety of the fighters.”
Drummond said the ability of fighters to defend themselves does not negate the commission’s regulatory authority over the competition.
“Though slap fighting differs from existing combat sports as defenders may not ‘defend’ against the slap, the definition of ‘combative sport’ contains no requirements about available methods to defend against blows,” Drummond wrote.
Drummond’s opinion means commissioners can begin making rules for how slap fighting competitions can take place in Oklahoma.
“With the first contests in Oklahoma being reported in early 2024, slap fighting contests are a new import,” Drummond wrote in his opinion. “These contests’ arrival to Oklahoma and related safety concerns implicate the (Oklahoma State Athletic Commission) Act’s intent to protect participants and invite new regulated events to Oklahoma.”
The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 7.
Game fowl group sees ‘winnable’ Capitol battle
McALESTER — A leadership change in the Oklahoma State Senate has game fowl breeders hoping they will find better luck next year reducing cockfighting offenses from felonies to misdemeanors for the first two times offenders are caught engaging in the blood sport.
On Sunday, about 2,000 people attended a daylong event at Southeast Expo Center hosted by the Oklahoma Game Fowl Commission, a 501(c)(4) group that pushed legislation decriminalizing and/or reducing penalties for cockfighting crimes in 2023 and 2024. As the 2025 session approaches, the organization again intends to support bills reducing penalties in Title 21, Section 1692.8, which prescribes the punishments for cockfighting approved by voters in 2002.
“I can’t stress enough how winnable of a battle it is at the State Capitol,” said Blake Pearce, the organization’s secretary and a third-generation rooster rancher from Sallisaw.
Sunday’s poultry show featured more than 150 game fowl from states like Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama, as well as breeders from Oklahoma. Rep. Justin “J.J.” Humphrey (R-Lane) spoke during Sunday’s event. In 2023, Humphrey proposed a bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives but failed to receive a hearing in the Senate.
Pearce said the measure was blocked by Greg Treat, the Senate’s president pro tempore since 2019. Treat was term limited this year, and he left office last week.
On Sunday, Pearce said the Game Fowl Commission worked this summer to defeat Greg McCortney, a Republican from Ada who served as Senate floor leader and who had been designated as Treat’s successor. However, McCortney lost in the June 18 Republican primary.
The Senate Republican Caucus met last week and nominated Sen. Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) to serve as president pro tempore. The full Senate will elect its leader during an organizational meeting Jan. 7.
Game Fowl Commission members said Sunday they feel optimistic because Paxton was the Senate sponsor of Humphrey’s House Bill 2530 in 2023. That year, the organization reported giving Paxton two donations totaling $2,500, according to Ethics Commission records.
Pearce said Oklahoma’s estimated 5,000 game fowl breeders raise roosters and sell them mostly to buyers in other countries who breed them or show them. The birds sold from Oklahoma are not supposed to be used for fighting, Pearce claimed, but their offspring can.
Anthony DeVore, president of the Oklahoma Game Fowl Commission, said breeders have a $400 million economic impact in Oklahoma by buying feed and supplies and employing workers. (In an April 2023 press release, the organization claimed its impact was $60 million.)
“The main thing is we ought to be able to raise them without somebody’s interpretation of, you know, ‘Hey, we think you’re going to fight them,’” DeVore said.
Attendance at this year’s game fowl convention considerably surpassed the group’s 2023 reported turnout of 400 to 500 people. At least in the short term, Sunday’s event also proved less controversial than last year, which saw Gov. Kevin Stitt record a video to the group saying he wanted “to cheer you on from the sidelines.”
Woman pleads guilty to embezzling from OKC nonprofit
On Nov. 11, Debra Kaye Lyons of Yukon pleaded guilty to federal program theft for a scheme wherein she bought cell phones using funds from her employer, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and re-sold them for her own financial gain.
According to federal court documents filed Oct. 7, Lyons was a telecommunications coordinator who administered the nonprofit’s relations with AT&T. Lyons began work with the nonprofit in 2007, and her illegal actions began in January 2022, according to prosecutors. A press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester stated Lyons stole $5,000 in funds from the nonprofit.
The nonprofit was referred to only as “Victim 1” in the filing. The phrase “Amended Information” appears in place of the nonprofit’s name in the release from Troester’s office. The documents filed Oct. 7 say the nonprofit “conducted biomedical research regarding a variety of human diseases” and “received millions of dollars in funding from the United States government each year through grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources.”
Debbie Lyons’ sparsely-populated LinkedIn profile lists her occupation as a telecommunications coordinator for OMRF, a prominent Oklahoma City-based biomedical research organization. A spokesman for OMRF told NonDoc that Lyons no longer works for the organization but declined to comment further.
State Board of Education hires attorney Joel Wohlgemuth
Following a switch in legal counsel at the Oct. 24 Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting that caused members to table most agenda items, the board held a Nov. 8 special meeting and voted to retain Joel Wohlgemuth as independent legal counsel.
The special meeting included only two agenda items, the first focusing on the possible retention of Wohlgemuth as the board’s legal counsel, and the other to discuss litigation pending against board members before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The case involves Walters’ memorandum to enforce teaching the Bible in Oklahoma public schools.
Within the first 10 minutes of the meeting, the board moved to retain Wohlgemuth as its new legal counsel with a 5-0 vote — a move that came after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond previously declined to renew the contract of the board’s prior legal counsel, Cara Niklas, who had served as the board’s attorney since October 2023.
Wohlgemuth is a partner at the Tulsa-based law firm Norman Wohlgemuth where he practices civil and criminal litigation. Reporting from the Tulsa World states the Attorney General’s Office confirmed Wohlgemuth will charge the state $300 an hour for his services, compared to the $85 an hour the AG’s office told the board it would charge for services at the Oct. 24 meeting.
Owing to ongoing friction between the AG’s office and the State Department of Education, board members voiced concerns involving possible conflicts of interest at the October meeting, as they received temporary legal counsel from attorney Brad Clark — the general counsel in Drummond’s office.
Ultimately, the board hired Wohlgemuth who is also representing Walters in a defamation lawsuit filed against him in his personal capacity by Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller.
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for a statement prior to the publication of this story.
For the agenda item regarding litigation over Walters’ Bible memorandum, the board opted to go into a short executive session “for the purposes of the board receiving some legal advice from Mr. Wohlgemuth,” according to board member Sarah Lepak. After the near 20 minute closed-door conversation, the board returned and Lepak said no actions or motions were taken on agenda item 2B. The meeting adjourned.
The next OSDE board meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Oliver Hodge Education Building.
Walters announces Bible purchase, distributes prayer video
On Nov. 14, Walters announced the State Department of Education’s first purchase of Bibles for classrooms after months of statewide discussion and pending litigation regarding Walters’ proposed Bible mandate. The purchase — reportedly the first of its kind in the nation — is “separate from a larger purchase detailed in a forthcoming request for proposal” from the state agency, according to a press release from Walters.
“We are focused on ensuring we get Bibles available in every classroom in our state as quickly as we can,” Walters said in the release. “I will take every step possible to ensure Oklahoma students have the resources they need to fully understand American history. By acting now, Oklahoma is leading the country on a path toward greater focus on academic excellence by providing critical historical, cultural, and literary context for our students. We are not going to change our history, and the Bible is a major part of that.”
Hours later, the normally bureaucracy-averse Walters also shared a video announcing his formation of the Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism within OSDE. In the video, Walters briefly mentions protecting religious freedoms in the classroom and claims “woke teachers unions” have been mocking patriotism and pushing “a hatred for this country.” Then, he invites students to join him in a prayer.
During the prayer, Walters said he was praying “in particular” for President Donald Trump and that he hopes to continue to teach students “what makes America great, and that they continue to love this country.” Notably, Walters conducts the prayer with a leather-bound Bible placed on the desk in front of him and a mug with the Latin phrase “si vis pacem para bellum,” which translates to “if you want peace, prepare for war.”
Although Walters reportedly ordered superintendents to show the video to students and families, many public school districts have opted against distributing the video, stating that Walters cannot legally force them to do so. Other districts said they did not want to disrupt the daily curriculum, according to KOCO.
Newly elected Sen. Mark Mann (D-OKC) formerly worked within OSDE and served on the Board of Education for Oklahoma City Public Schools for seven years. Mann issued a statement critical of the superintendent’s “political theater.”
“Ryan Walters needs to focus on doing his job, and less on political theater,” Mann said Friday. “He has no authority granted through the Constitution or the Legislature to require Oklahoma schools to show this video to their students. Districts should ignore this demand and rely on guidance from their local school boards about the kind of media and information they deem necessary and appropriate for their students and parents.”
