On March 10, the Oklahoma Supreme Court temporarily blocked Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) from spending taxpayer dollars on Bibles and Bible-infused instructional materials.
The order came in the lawsuit Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters, which was filed in October 2024 on behalf of 32 Oklahoma families, teachers and faith leaders. The plaintiffs are represented by Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice.
The state high court’s order temporarily stayed “work on any new request by the OSDE for the purchase of Bibles.” In addition, the order paused work on a request for proposals issued by OSDE on February 21. This request for proposals sought suppliers for “supplemental instructional materials that effectively integrate the Bible and character education into elementary-level social studies curriculum.”
The organizations representing the plaintiffs issued a joint statement reading, “This victory is an important step toward protecting the religious freedom of every student and parent in Oklahoma. Superintendent Ryan Walters has been abusing his power, and the court checked those abuses today. Our diverse coalition of families and clergy remains united against Walters’s extremism and in favor of a core First Amendment principle: the separation of church and state.”
AU and the other groups had earlier filed a legal brief before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, urging the court to block state officials from fulfilling Walters’ latest requests for Bibles and Bible-infused instructional materials.
In the brief, the plaintiffs demonstrated how new requests for proposals are unlawful for the same reasons as the original requests for Bibles that OSDE issued in September 2024, including that they would violate the Oklahoma Constitution’s religious freedom protections by using state funds to support one particular religion; would use state funds to support an unlawful rule — Walters’ Bible-instruction mandate; and would spend public money without legislative authority.
The case began in June when Walters unilaterally issued a directive requiring every public school in Oklahoma to “incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments,” into their curricula, an abuse of power that ignored state laws. Walters then fast-tracked plans to spend $3 million of taxpayer money on 55,000 King James Bibles, but the state legislature rejected the funding.
Walters continues his efforts to force Bibles into Oklahoma’s schools. After state legislators rebuffed his demand for money to pay for leather-bound “God Bless the USA” Bibles promoted by President Donald Trump, Walters announced he would partner with country singer Lee Greenwood to raise private funds to pay for the Bibles.