A federal judge has ruled that Tennessee may not bar a Christian nonprofit from the state’s charter school program because it seeks to operate a religious school. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville sided Friday with Wilberforce Academy in its challenge to the Knox County Board of Education.
Judge Charles Atchley barred the board from enforcing Tennessee’s nonsectarian requirement for charter schools. He wrote, “The First Amendment does not permit Tennessee to open its charter school program to private participants and then exclude them because they seek to exercise their religion.” He also concluded that the requirement “violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.” The court did not require the board to pay nominal damages.
Wilberforce Academy filed suit in December 2025 after Tennessee law blocked religious nonprofit organizations from sponsoring charter schools and required charter schools to operate as “public, nonsectarian, [and] nonreligious” schools. The school submitted a letter of intent in late 2025 but could not complete the application because organizers were asked to affirm that the school would not be a private religious or church school.
Tennessee lawmakers amended the law earlier this year to allow religious nonprofit organizations to sponsor charter schools. The nonsectarian requirement remained in place. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti had argued in December 2025 that the state’s ban likely violated the Free Exercise Clause, while Tennessee parents and nonreligious charter school officials intervened to oppose Wilberforce Academy’s claims.
The decision drew on recent US Supreme Court religious liberty rulings, including Carson v. Makin and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. It comes as religious charter school proposals move through courts and school systems in several states. Oklahoma’s St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was blocked after a 4-4 US Supreme Court vote left an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision in place, while Union Academy in Tennessee has been approved to open as a charter school in the 2027-28 school year. The next test is whether more states will treat religious schools as equal participants when they open public programs to private groups.
