Judge disqualified in lawsuit against launching Oklahoma's first religious charter school

A high-profile court case involving the creation of the nation's first public religious charter school will have a new judge after the first one assigned was disqualified Friday by one of his Oklahoma County colleagues.

In a brief hearing, Amy Palumbo, the county's chief district judge for January, ruled District Judge Brent Dishman should be removed from the lawsuit, agreeing with the plaintiffs about the possibility of a conflict of interest.

The lawsuit was filed in July by a group of taxpayers challenging the state Board of Education's decision in October to authorize St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as a charter school.

Last month, Dishman declined to recuse himself from the case after being asked to do so by the plaintiffs. They appealed his decision to the chief district judge, a position that rotates on a monthly basis.

Why was the original judge disqualified from the case?

Palumbo normally oversees criminal cases, not civil cases like the St. Isidore filing, which she noted in court. A few minutes after Palumbo issued her ruling, attorneys for both sides visited the court clerk’s office and the case was reassigned to District Judge Richard Ogden.

Court filings show the plaintiffs’ request for disqualification was based on two factors. One, Dishman’s sister-in-law is the co-founder of the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition (OPLAC), one of the plaintiffs in the case. Dishman also serves on the board of College of the Ozarks, a private religious school in Point Lookout, Missouri, that previously hired several of the defense attorneys in a separate case with similar issues.

“I see a conflict that could arise on both of those issues,” Palumbo said during the hearing.

“Obviously, we think that was the right decision,” said Kenneth Upton, an attorney for OPLAC. “The case really just started. Nothing’s happening, so this was the time to do it in the way that would be least disruptive. I am happy we got it resolved early, because it could have dragged on for months.”

Upton said the recusal request wasn’t personal.

“The problem was, even if Judge Dishman thought he could make a fair ruling and follow the law, he was in a no-win situation,” Upton said. “He should have recused, but I think he viewed it as a very important case. … This is one that is kind of an interesting case, and I’m sure he would have tried, but that’s why the (recusal) rules are set up not so much subjectively, but objectively.”

Attorneys for the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, which voted 3-2 to authorize St. Isidore, declined to comment after the hearing.

Oklahoma religious charter school involved in another court case

The Oklahoma County court case is one of two involving St. Isidore. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond also is suing to stop the state’s authorization of the school. That case, filed in October, is before the state Supreme Court. No hearings on the matter have been set.

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.

One of those groups, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, filed a brief Thursday in Drummond’s case, in support of the attorney general’s position. Drummond has warned that approval of the Catholic charter school might eventually force Oklahoma to fund schools teaching Sharia law.

“All charter schools are public schools,” said Todd Ziebarth, the alliance’s senior vice president for state advocacy and support. “The National Alliance firmly believes charter schools, like all other public schools, may not be religious institutions or discriminate against any student or staff member on the basis of sex, gender, race, disability or religious preference. We insist every charter school student must be given the same federal and state civil rights and constitutional protections as their district school peers.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Catholic charter school lawsuit: Judge disqualified