The Oklahoma Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed against former state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education over a Bible-teaching mandate issued in June 2024 by Walters.
In an order issued Monday, Nov. 24, the court officially accepted original jurisdiction over the case, known as Walke v. Walters, then said because new Superintendent Lindel Fields has dropped the mandate and an attempt by the state agency to buy Bibles for Oklahoma classrooms using taxpayer money, “the court finds that the matter should be dismissed as moot.”
Chief Justice Dustin Rowe signed the order and led a 6-2 vote to dismiss the lawsuit. Justices James Winchester, James Edmondson, Douglas Combs, Richard Darby and M. John Kane IV joined Rowe in the majority, while Justices Noma Gurich and Travis Jett dissented, with Jett saying he would have denied the plaintiffs’ application for the court to assume original jurisdiction of the case. Justice Dana Kuehn recused herself from the case.
A group of attorneys representing the plaintiffs, a group of more than 30 Oklahomans, issued a joint statement. The attorneys were from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, Freedom from Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
The statement said they were pleased Fields dropped Walters’ attempts to incorporate the Bible in classrooms, and that the state Supreme Court confirmed that Walters’ policies are no longer active.
“Fields’ actions and the Supreme Court’s order mean that Oklahoma families and students – not politicians – will get to decide if, when and how to engage with the Bible,” the statement said.
“The Oklahoma Supreme Court correctly determined the issues are moot. Superintendent Fields has rescinded the directives, and the department has not and will not issue a request for proposals,” spokeswoman Joleen Chaney said. “We remain committed to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Since Bibles are already available in most Oklahoma schools, students and teachers continue to have access to those resources.”
Bonnie Campo, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services, said that agency “is committed to supporting all state partners. We will work closely with OSDE’s new leadership to identify their current needs and provide the necessary procurement guidance and resources to support their operations moving forward.”
OMES, the procurement agency for state government, was a defendant in the case due to a “request for proposal” for the Bible purchases filed through that agency.
After issuing his Bible-teaching mandate, Walters remained persistent in attempting to get Bibles into classrooms. But it was not just any Bible Walters pushed. Twice, his agency created request for proposals to purchase 55,000 Bibles that appeared to be written for a specific copy of the Bible: musician Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” edition, which has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
That specific Bible includes all the non-biblical documents — the U.S. Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights — listed on the original request for proposals.
The plaintiffs sued in October 2024 over the mandate and the attempts by Walters to use taxpayer money to buy the Bibles. In March, they asked the court to stop a Bible-donation plan implemented by Walters, in which he partnered with Greenwood on a nationwide campaign to encourage donations of Bibles to Oklahoma classrooms. That announcement came after the Oklahoma Senate nixed a $3 million budget request by Walters’ agency to buy Bibles.
Also in March, the court paused the request for proposals at the request of OMES. Walters filed a motion in July demanding the court lift that stay, which the court essentially ignored.
Walters resigned Sept. 30 and Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Fields two days later. On Oct. 14, the court noted the “significant turnover among the public officers” named as defendants in the lawsuit – namely the entire state Board of Education membership had turned over, as had the superintendent’s position and the director of OMES.
The court gave Fields two weeks to decide what to do with the Bible mandate. The next day, Fields said he’d drop the mandate and efforts to buy Bibles. Walters posted on social media that day he “could not be more disappointed in the decision to move away from empowering our teachers in Oklahoma to use a foundational document like the Bible in the classroom.”
Original Article – Ryan Walters’ Oklahoma Bible mandate dismissed by Supreme Court
