Oklahoma will not be able to launch the nation's first religious public charter school after the Supreme Court on Thursday deadlocked 4-4 in a major case on the separation of church and state. The decision by the evenly divided court means that a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the federal Constitution and state law remains in place. As there was no majority, the court did not issue a written decision, and the case sets no nationwide precedent on the contentious legal question of whether religious schools must be able to participate in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs.

The Supreme Court on Thursday effectively ended a publicly funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma, dividing 4-4. The outcome keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a vote by a state charter school board to approve the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the nation’s first religious charter school. But it leaves the issue unresolved nationally. The one-sentence notice from the court provides an unsatisfying end to one of the term’s most closely watched cases.

The Supreme Court was deadlocked on Thursday on whether to allow Oklahoma to establish the country’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school. The court split 4-4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the proceedings, therefore affirming the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling, which had blocked the approval of a charter for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School because of its religious affiliation. The high court did not elaborate on the reason for its decision. The Oklahoma Supreme Court found in its ruling that a religious charter school would violate the state constitution.