Remembering
James Robison

You are viewing a page from our archive site. To browse the latest Christian TV content on The Stream, click here.

The Brew: Barrett’s Recusal Leads to Deadlock

By John Zmirak Published on May 23, 2025

The U.S. Supreme Court just deadlocked on an appeal from a lower court, effectively killing faith-based charter schools in Oklahoma in a case that has potential implications nationwide. The Federalist reports:

In a stunning Thursday ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to nullify an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocking the establishment of the nation’s first public religious charter school. The final vote was deadlocked at 4-4, with Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case.

The high court did not offer a written opinion on the matter or disclose which way each justice ruled.

The case first came to fruition in fall 2023, when the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board entered into a contract with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The agreement made the latter the “first religious public virtual charter school in the nation,” according to The Federalist Society.

Most legal observers credit the deadlock to Barrett’s recusal; her motives are somewhat mysterious. Apparently she decided to withhold her vote on this crucial religious liberty case because she has a friend who works as an advisor at St. Isidore. As conservative legal analyst Carrie Severino reports:

I won’t claim that “I hate to say I told you so.” Because I did, and I don’t hate the fact that I was right. If I have to be a Cassandra, warning fruitlessly against one Trojan Horse after another, I might as well take some grim satisfaction from it.

I warned back in 2019 that Barrett was prone to recusing herself inappropriately. She said so in a legal article she wrote, asserting that Catholic judges in death penalty cases should recuse themselves rather than apply that constitutional remedy because Pope John Paul II had changed Catholic doctrine to disapprove of the practice. Speaking of immigration (an issue on which popes have tried directly to meddle with U.S. law enforcement), I asked:

If an immigration case came before the Supreme Court, would a Justice Barrett feel compelled by her Catholic conscience to follow the pope and his bishops? Would she recuse herself, depriving us of a crucial vote on a subject of enormous national importance?

Now Barrett has done exactly that: deprived the conservative voters who selected a president of a critical vote, albeit on religious liberty rather than national security, and for frivolous personal reasons rather than from servility to the pope. No, Christian kids in Oklahoma won’t be able to attend religious schools funded by their parents’ taxes, but at least Barrett can feel good about her supercalifragilisticexpialidocious level of integrity. This is virtue-signaling on a 9/11 scale.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said, “Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of nineteenth-century religious bigotry is wrong. As state superintendent, I will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or otherwise.”

I reiterate my advice to President Donald Trump from a few months ago: For his next Supreme Court nomination, he needs to choose an evangelical Christian — someone from a group that is crucial to America’s founding and flourishing, which has long been completely unrepresented on our nation’s highest court. Maybe look at some of the people who work at First Liberty, the legal group that represented Oklahoma in this case, instead of cronies of the Federalist Society, which endorsed the effort to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot as an “insurrectionist.”

Marxist Murders Two Israeli Christians in Washington, D.C.

Political murder in our nation’s capital, motivated by racial and political hate? Welcome to 2025. ABC News reports:

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two staff members at the Israeli Embassy, were killed outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

The young couple were not diplomats … Lischinsky was a researcher in the political department of the Israeli Embassy, and Milgrim organized U.S. missions to Israel.

“The couple that was gunned down tonight were about to be engaged,” Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States, said during the press conference. “The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.”

Both the victims apparently were believing Christians of Jewish descent.

The Daily Mail reports on the apparent killer:

Elias Rodriguez, 30, yelled “free, free Palestine'” after he allegedly shot Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum.

Rodriguez allegedly posted a manifesto online calling for “armed demonstration” as a response to the “genocide” in Gaza, hours before approaching a group of four people and opening fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

Our prayers are with the victims, their families, and every victim of religious hatred and ultra-nationalist violence.

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

Harvard to Be Stripped of Foreign Student Cash Cows

Universities love foreign students, who usually pay full freight instead of getting pricey financial aid. Harvard particularly loves non-Americans because the school itself is un-American — leading the way for other elite universities whose loyalties lie with globalism, multiculturalism, and oligarchy. The Trump administration has been targeting Harvard for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1965 with its flagrantly discriminatory DEI initiatives, and has stripped the school of lucrative federal contracts. Now the administration is going after another of Harvard’s piggybanks: its trade in international students. The Harvard Crimson reports:

The Trump administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students on Thursday, dramatically escalating the administration’s fight with the University and threatening thousands of current students.

In a letter addressed to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote that Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification was halted, “effective immediately.”

The revocation would prevent Harvard from enrolling any international students on F- or J- nonimmigrant visas for the 2025-2026 academic year. Harvard currently hosts more than 6,000 international students, many of whom attend on F-1 or J-1 visas.

The announcement comes just one week before thousands of international students at Harvard are set to graduate.

Noem explained the administration’s decision in refreshingly blunt terms:

Couldn’t happen to a nicer school. As a Yale graduate, however, I can’t help feeling left out. Mr. President, what about our school? It’s every bit as obnoxious as Harvard, we promise!

Fauci Lied, Americans Died

A few brave souls like Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter McCullough, and Naomi Wolf tried to warn Americans about the risks of the abortion-derived experimental COVID vaccine that was forced on millions of citizens without safety testing. Now the U.S. Senate is exposing just how reckless Big Pharma and its servants in the government and media really were during the pandemic. Fox News reports:

U.S. health officials knew about the risks of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccines but downplayed the concern and delayed informing the public about the risks of taking the jab — that is according to a new Senate report released by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Wednesday.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has been investigating the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Earlier this year, he subpoenaed the Department of Health and Human Services for records relating to COVID-19 vaccine safety data and communications about the pandemic. …

Johnson’s report says the 2,473 pages of records he obtained “contain evidence of the Biden administration’s efforts to downplay and delay warning the public about the risks of myocarditis associated with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”

Along The Stream…

Don’t miss the fascinating video that examines physical evidence for one of the most controversial events recounted in Scripture, Noah’s Flood.

Later this morning, Joachim Osther asks tough questions about President Trump’s recent deals with various Muslim powers in the Middle East. Where are the protections for local, persecuted Christians in Syria?

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.