A deadlocked Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a decision blocking an Oklahoma Catholic school from participating in the state&#8217;s charter school program.
The 4-4 decision upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Court&#8217;s decision to ban the Oklahoma City-based St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from being eligible. It was unclear how the justices voted, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.
The case pitted the Catholic school against Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who sued the school after the state&#8217;s charter school board voted to approve St. Isidore&#8217;s participation. Drummond argued that allowing religious schools to take part in the program would force taxpayers to fund schools with religious beliefs they did not support.
&#8220;The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma. I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty,&#8221; Drummond <a href="https://x.com/Okla_OAG/status/1925559733697540373">posted</a> on X after the decision from the court was released.
Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the school and charter board argued that Oklahoma discriminated based on religion.
“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer,&#8221; ADF chief legal counsel Jim Campbell <a href="https://adflegal.org/press-release/divided-us-supreme-court-leaves-oklahoma-families-with-fewer-educational-choices/?sourcecode=11036715_r200">said</a>. &#8220;While the Supreme Court’s order is disappointing for educational freedom, the 4-4 decision does not set precedent, allowing the court to revisit this issue in the future. The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear that when the government creates programs and invites groups to participate, it can’t single out religious groups for exclusion, and we will continue our work to protect this vital freedom for parents and students.&#8221;
A win for St. Isidore would have struck down a provision of the Oklahoma Charter School Act that expressly forbids religious charter schools and could open the door for more religious charter schools across the country.
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In previous decisions, such as Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court sided with religious organizations that had been locked out of state programs based on their religious nature. In Carson, the Supreme Court struck down a ban in Maine on vouchers from going toward religious schools.
During oral arguments, several justices on the court&#8217;s conservative wing appeared to side with St. Isidore while the liberal wing signaled strong opposition.
&#8220;You can’t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-conservatives-signal-support-for-public-religious-charter-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, adding that excluding religious schools “seems like rank discrimination.”

Supreme Court Takes On Religious Charter School Case

Split Supreme Court Blocks Christian School From Participating In Charter Program

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Conservative Supreme Court justices suggested approval for the nation&#8217;s first taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school in a landmark case that could dramatically expand religious freedom in American education.
St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, proposed by two Oklahoma Catholic dioceses, would offer K-12 education with an explicitly religious curriculum as a state-funded charter school.
Hundreds of families have already signed up while the school awaits the resolution of legal challenges, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-mulls-legality-milestone-religious-charter-school-2025-04-30/">according</a> to Reuters.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh pushed back against the state&#8217;s exclusion of religion during arguments, stating: &#8220;&#8230; You can&#8217;t treat religious people and religious institutions and religious speech as second class in the United States,&#8221; adding that excluding religious schools &#8220;seems like rank discrimination.&#8221;
Attorney James Campbell, a lawyer for the state&#8217;s charter school board that approved St. Isidore, told Justice Kavanaugh that Oklahoma already permits charter schools with specific themes, noting that only religion seemed to be off limits, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-religious-catholic-charter-school-oklahoma-983ed57aabeae53e4b58367c5021f5e1">reported</a>.
“They’re not asking for special treatment, not asking for favoritism,” Kavanaugh concurred. “They’re just saying, ’Don’t treat us worse because we’re religious.&#8217;”
Chief Justice John Roberts challenged both sides of the argument, and will likely be the swing vote after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself without an explanation. She is a former Notre Dame Law School professor, a major supporter of publicly funded religious charter schools.
&#8220;This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement,&#8221; Roberts said, distinguishing it from earlier cases involving &#8220;limited state benefits, such as playground improvements, tuition and tax credits.&#8221;
The court’s three liberal justices were in uniform opposition to the charter school’s creation, with Justice Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2024/24-394_1b72.pdf">saying</a>, “What would you do with a charter school that doesn’t want to teach evolution? Or doesn’t want to teach history, including the history of slavery?”
In the event of a 4-4 tie, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s 6-2 ruling blocking the creation of St. Isidore would be left in place, which deemed the charter school a &#8220;governmental entity&#8221; that would violate constitutional limits on government involvement in religion.
The case has divided Oklahoma Republicans, with Governor Kevin Stitt and the Trump administration backing the school, while Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond opposes it, per Reuters.
If approved, St. Isidore would represent a significant shift in American education by becoming the first publicly funded charter school with an explicitly religious curriculum.
The Supreme Court&#8217;s decision is expected by the end of June.

Supreme Court Conservatives Signal Support For Public Religious Charter Schools

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a case to decide whether an Oklahoma Catholic school can participate in the state&#8217;s charter school program, pitting the school against the state&#8217;s Republican attorney general.
The controversy arose after the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board approved a charter application from the Oklahoma City-based St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. After taking office, Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued to block the school from being eligible for the program, saying that Oklahoma law mandated charter schools be &#8220;nonsectarian.&#8221;
The Oklahoma Supreme Court <a href="https://dm1l19z832j5m.cloudfront.net/2024-06/Drummond-v-OK-SVCSB-2024-06-25-Majority-Decision.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreed</a> with Drummond and blocked St. Isidore from receiving more public funds for its school. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the charter board argues that St. Isidore&#8217;s First Amendment rights are being discriminated against.
“Instead of embracing schools like St. Isidore who are stepping up to provide solutions are discriminating against them just because of their faith,&#8221; charter board chair Brian Shellum said in a press call attended by The Daily Wire. &#8220;That’s not just unfair, it&#8217;s unconstitutional. Parents understand what’s at stake in this case. They are seeking results not roadblocks.&#8221;
Oklahoma charter schools, which are free and open to all students, are privately run but publicly supported.
In January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and will look at <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/qp/24-00394qp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two questions.</a> The first is &#8220;whether the academic and pedagogical choices of a privately owned and run school constitute state action simply because it contracts with the state to offer a free educational option for interested students.&#8221; The second is whether Oklahoma is violating the Free Exercise Clause by excluding St. Isidore.
A win for St. Isidore would strike down a provision of the Oklahoma Charter School Act that expressly forbids religious charter schools and could open the door for more religious charter schools across the country.
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&#8220;A ruling for Petitioners will promote parental choice, individual liberty, educational diversity, and student achievement. It will also improve the lives of economically disadvantaged families and children by creating high-quality educational opportunities that are currently out of their reach,&#8221; lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-394/356083/20250421111247727_24-394%20Reply%20Brief.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brief</a>. &#8220;Excluding religious groups from Oklahoma’s charter-school program denies these opportunities and causes real harm. The Court should uphold the First Amendment and end this discrimination.&#8221;
Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Jim Campbell pointed The Daily Wire to three recent Supreme Court cases — Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin — as examples of the high court siding with religious organizations that had been locked out of state programs. In Carson, the Supreme Court struck down a ban in Maine on vouchers from going toward religious schools.
Drummond also says that religious liberty is at stake, saying that it would be wrong to make the public fund religious schools that they are opposed to.
&#8220;As a committed Christian, the last thing I want is for my tax dollars to be used to fund the radical teachings of Sharia or the demonic worship of Satan. Thankfully, the Court agreed with my position and our religious liberty is protected — for now,&#8221; he said in July. &#8220;Let me be clear: Religious liberty means every citizen is free to worship as he or she believes. Religious liberty does not mean that the government should fund religious indoctrination with our tax dollars.&#8221;
He reiterated that argument in an <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/2025/04/27/ag-st-isidore-schools-ok-would-threaten-religious-liberty-opinion/83193358007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">op-ed</a> published on Monday in The Oklahoman, where he said that he supported religious private schools, but did not want the government to fund them in any form.
&#8220;I swore an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and I believe our Founding Fathers knew best how to protect religious liberty: by preventing the government from funding any religion at all. I do not want Oklahoma schoolchildren indoctrinated in public schools — I want them educated,&#8221; he wrote.
A spokesman for Drummond told The Daily Wire that the op-ed summarized the heart of his arguments and pointed to <a href="https://oklahoma.gov/oag/news/generally-speaking/2024/july-a-triumph-for-religious-liberty.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comments</a> he made after he won at the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Other top Oklahoma GOP officials, including Governor Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters, disagree with Drummond.
&#8220;Oklahomans know the Bible and Christian values shaped our nation — and they’re tired of seeing faith driven out of our schools,&#8221; Walters said. &#8220;AG Drummond is out of step with Oklahoma conservatives who know what made America great.&#8221;
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Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To Block Order To Return Mistakenly Deported Man

Supreme Court To Hear Arguments In Landmark Case On School Choice And Religious Liberty

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Education

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At least forty people were killed as fierce winds and tornadoes ripped across the country over the weekend, slamming the Midwest and the South. 
Twenty-four of the deaths were attributed to tornadoes, while wind-fueled dust storms and fires resulted in another 16 deaths. At least 12 people <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/tornado-outbreak-live-updates-18-dead-dozens-injured/?id=119832914" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were</a> killed in Missouri, three in Alabama, eight in Kansas, six in Mississippi, four in Texas, three in Arkansas, and four in Oklahoma. 
Tens of thousands of customers are still out of power after the storms raced across the country up into Pennsylvania and New York. More than 25,000 customers are without electricity in Missouri, 56,000 in Pennsylvania, and 23,000 in New York, <a href="https://poweroutage.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to PowerOutage.us. 
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had activated the National Guard in response to the storms. 
“We are actively monitoring the severe tornadoes and storms that have impacted many States across the South and Midwest — 36 innocent lives have been lost, and many more devastated,” he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114174243289152293">posted</a> on Truth Social on Sunday. “The National Guard have been deployed to Arkansas, and my Administration is ready to assist State and Local Officials, as they help their communities to try and recover from the damage. Please join Melania and me in praying for everyone impacted by these terrible storms!”
<div id="attachment_892677" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892677" class="size-full wp-image-892677" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="1024" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2205026292-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Photo by Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images.</div>
In Kansas, a wind-fueled dust storm <a href="https://www.ksn.com/news/state-regional/dust-settles-on-71-vehicle-pileup-8-fatalities-near-goodland/">caused</a> a 70-car pileup on Interstate 70 that killed eight people near Goodland on Friday. 
“I’ve seen it before, but this is probably the worst I’ve ever seen,” Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman told KSNW. 
Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama were all slammed by tornadoes, as at least 56 developed across 10 different states, <a href="https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/severe-weather-tornadoes-dust-storm-blizzard-midwest-plains-southeast-east-coast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Fox Forecast Center. Southeast Missouri was hit particularly hard after storms ripped through Wayne, Ozark, Butler, and Jefferson counties. 
Videos posted online also showed widespread tornado damage in Mississippi.
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FOX Weather exclusive video shows the extensive damages in Tylertown, Mississippi after a tornado ripped through the area this weekend. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mississippi?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mississippi</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tornado?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#tornado</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Farm?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Farm</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FoxWeather?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FoxWeather</a> <a href="https://t.co/bwwXZqbCM9">pic.twitter.com/bwwXZqbCM9</a>
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) <a href="https://twitter.com/foxweather/status/1901393041736228951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey said on Sunday that most of her state had been impacted by the storms. 
“We have reports of damage in 52 of our 67 counties. Our damage assessment continues. The sun has risen in Alabama, though. We pray for those lives we lost, as well as those who were injured. And we pray for our first responders, emergency management officials and linemen who are doing incredible work on the ground right now,” she said.

Tornadoes Rip Through Missouri

At Least 40 Dead After Tornadoes, Dust Storms Ravage Several States

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This week, the Oklahoma House passed a bill requiring registered child sex offenders to be “chemically castrated” in order to be released on parole.
<a href="https://www.oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20ENGR/hB/HB2422%20ENGR.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Bill 2422</a> states that a sex offender must be someone who is over the age of 21 and who has committed a crime involving physical touch against a child under the age of 13 that requires registration as a sex offender. If a mental health evaluation determines that the sex offender would commit a sex crime again, the offender is offered the possibility of hormonal treatment in order to gain parole, which must be accepted voluntarily.
“Reoffending, ending treatment or seeking reversal of the treatment, which &#8216;use chemicals or drugs to stop sex hormone production,&#8217; would result in returning to prison for life without the possibility of parole,” Oklahoma Voice <a href="https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/03/10/bill-seeking-to-chemically-castrate-child-sex-offenders-advances-to-oklahoma-senate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“I mean, if I’m just brutally honest with you, this is the third freaking year I’ve run this bill in some form or fashion, trying to fix these problems, to keep our kids safe,” GOP Rep. Scott Fetgatter, who authored the bill, stated.
&#8220;For whatever reason, this legislative body in the Senate over here, they’ve killed the bill all three years. So I’m trying to get something with some traction going forward so that we can fix this issue and keep our kids safe. Because what happens daily all across the state is unacceptable. And if it were up to me, I’d take them down on the town square in Okmulgee, and you know what I might do with a pair of snips.”
“So to be clear, I’m not allowing anybody to go on parole. Okay?” Fetgatter said. “Because they currently could become eligible for parole as a part of their sentencing, what I’m saying is you can’t get out on parole unless you are mentally evaluated and chemically castrated. You’re not even eligible to be paroled.”
The bill now goes to the Oklahoma Senate for a vote.

Oklahoma State Capitol (Oklahoma City, Okalhoma)

Oklahoma House Passes Bill Requiring ‘Chemical Castration’ For Sex Offenders Who Want Parole

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The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/analyzing-trump-s-cabinet-with-senator-mullin-2-23-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday edition of Morning Wire</a>.
So far, President Trump is batting a thousand on confirmations for his cabinet secretary nominees. Just this week Kash Patel was confirmed as Director of the FBI while Labor Secretary Linda Chavez-DeRemer seems to have secured the support of the Senate. This is the fastest pace since 2001. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin joined Morning Wire to discuss Trump&#8217;s cabinet nominees, the Senate’s strategic approach to the confirmation process, and the significance of the GOP’s &#8220;Big Tent&#8221; strategy in uniting diverse political factions within the Republican Party.
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JOHN: Joining us to discuss the rapid fire series of confirmations and where the Trump cabinet and agenda stands now is Oklahoma’s Senator Markwayne Mullin. Senator, first of all thank you for joining us.
MULLIN: It&#8217;s my honor. Thanks for having me on.
JOHN: Let’s start with Kash Patel. You’ve been a strong advocate for Patel – why do you believe we need a “disruptor” like him to lead the FBI?
MULLIN: I wouldn&#8217;t describe him as a &#8220;disruptor.&#8221; I would say he&#8217;s someone who chases the facts. He exposed the wrongs, or the hypocrisy, or the cover-ups within FBI. He did this way before he was even being considered to be the director of the FBI. He was a whistleblower before people were even looking into it. You take somebody like him who understands the intel system, understands the mission of the FBI and has been concerned enough back years ago that he was willing to expose it. Why wouldn&#8217;t you want somebody like that? Because he&#8217;s not there to destroy the FBI. He&#8217;s there to get them back on mission focus. He&#8217;s there to support the field agents, to put them back on the mission focus of protecting the American people, not taking directive orders from a Democrat Party that&#8217;s wanting to investigate students for showing up to school board meetings, or classifying Catholics – and I&#8217;m not joking when I say this – as possible terrorists because they disagreed with the Democrat agenda, especially when it came to abortions. That was what that was all about. It&#8217;s concerning that the Democrat Party had weaponized the FBI for political gain and political purposes. What Kash is going to do is put them back on mission focus. That means he&#8217;s going to reform the 7th floor of the Hoover Building and take the politics out of it – and put the American people back in focus.
<div id="attachment_868749" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-868749" class="size-large wp-image-868749" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196133096-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 30: Kash Patel, nominee to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC on January 30, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196133096-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196133096-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196133096-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196133096.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images</div>
JOHN: Thus far all of President Trump’s nominees have gotten through the confirmation process relatively smoothly. Is this simply due to GOP majorities – or do you believe that Democrat opposition has been weakened by Trump’s mandate?
MULLIN: I think you’ve got a little bit of both. I think the American people spoke very loud and on November 5th, when he won the popular vote and obviously electoral vote. I think the Democrat Party is trying to reorganize and find themselves, and they can&#8217;t. They keep reverting back to 2017 rhetoric and I hope they stay there — because if they stay there, we&#8217;re going to continue to win elections. But at the same time, what you&#8217;ve seen is a new leader in the Senate with Leader Thune. He is 100% grinding the Democrats down from the get go. He said, “We can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way. It&#8217;s up to you.” And so once the president got confirmed and sworn into office on the 20th, what we did is we immediately started the clock on these agents and on these nominees, and these nominees haven&#8217;t stopped. What I mean by the clock, just to explain to your listeners, after they get out of committee, which we already had people preset. So, first of all, Leader Thune directed the chairs of the committees to get started on the hearings early, even before Trump was sworn into office. That normally doesn&#8217;t take place. So he preset it. We came in on January 3rd. The president wasn&#8217;t going to get sworn in until January 20th, but we already started hearing so we could get them reported out of committee and onto the floor for the hearing. So starting on January 20th, he started the clock on these nominees. Once they get reported out of committee, it&#8217;s called a 24-hour soak. Then, if they&#8217;re a cabinet position, meaning a secretary, it is a 30-hour debate. So that&#8217;s when we say we&#8217;re invoking cloture. It&#8217;s a 20 or 30 hour debate. So it&#8217;s 54 hours on secretary levels. On directors, like Kash Patel, when you invoke culture on them, you have a two hour debate. So while you still have a 24-hour soak, you only have two hours of debate on that person. So you can move those faster. He has literally kept that clock running 24/7, 7 days a week even when we&#8217;re not here. The Democrats will negotiate and say, “Okay, what we will do is we&#8217;ll continue the clock if you don&#8217;t make us vote on Saturday and Sunday – well, not Sunday.” Like we did with Pete Hegseth on Saturday. They said, ”If you don&#8217;t make us stay over on the weekend, we will allow the clocks to run consecutively, even though we&#8217;re not here.” So, we&#8217;ll go ahead and invoke culture on the next person. When the 30 hours run out, say, it&#8217;s 6:00 in the morning on Saturday, the next 30 hours will start. So when we get back here on Monday, we can confirm two people at once. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re so far ahead, because Leader Thune has not let up the pressure at all, not one bit, on the Democrats.
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JOHN: Really not wasting a second there. Wednesday was the hearing for Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. She was somewhat controversial on the Right because of her past support of pro-union policies and her past work for Planned Parenthood. You were one of her key proponents, even suggesting her nomination to President Trump. How do you envision her impacting labor relations in the current political climate?
MULLIN: Well, you have to go back to the coalition that President Trump has built. So, President Trump has brought a unique coalition together, right? Let&#8217;s just look at Tulsi. That conversation started over two years ago between President Trump and I, when he asked how do I get Libertarian and Independents to vote for us? We don&#8217;t have to win their vote, but we need to increase their percentages. I said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s bring Tulsi in.&#8221; Immediately that relationship started. Tulsi&#8217;s relationship with Bobby is what brought Bobby onto the campaign and the President quickly embraced him when he asked us to go to for me to be a surrogate to Indian country for him — even though a Republican hadn&#8217;t won Indian country since Nixon — President Trump wanted to put a special interest towards them. And so he ended up winning 63% of the Native American vote. When he asked, “Do you think we can win it?” I said, “Sir, you won all 77 counties in Oklahoma. There&#8217;s no greater population of Native American tribes in one area other than Oklahoma.&#8221; And I said, “So if you can win it in Oklahoma, you can win it nationally.” When you start looking at the unions, he asked right after Sean O&#8217;Brien, who had him and I had obviously public, very public disagreements. He asked us just a couple of months later. “Hey, I need you guys to work together.” His phone call to me was his [saying?], “Listen, we need the union votes. I want you to make friends with Sean. I believe you guys will get along. I talked to him. You guys actually have a lot in common.” He asked Sean to do the same thing. We got in a room together, and we&#8217;ve been friends ever since that day. And so the coalition that the president&#8217;s brought together is unique. At the same time, we have to understand that we can&#8217;t always use this conservative purity test when the president has got a mandate from the American people that he&#8217;s working for everybody. And that means this new coalition, we have to stay true to our values, but understand we&#8217;re accepting individuals that we may not 100% agree to, but we’ve got to show them some love. And Lori represents that. We have our differences, obviously. We&#8217;re a Right-to-Work state, a very proud Right-to-Work state. That&#8217;s what started the whole confrontation, honestly, between Sean and I. But at the same time, the unions have a place in this country, and I recognize that. There&#8217;s not a successful business that doesn&#8217;t have successful business employees. And there&#8217;s not an employee that has a good job that doesn&#8217;t have a business to work for. So they take both of us. Lori was a great compromise. It was one of those areas that, yeah, we&#8217;re going to give the unions a nod. We won 59% of the union vote, which he&#8217;s the first Republican president to do that in decades. We&#8217;re going, we&#8217;re going to give you a little nod, agree that we disagree on some issues, but we&#8217;re going to find common ground to work for because they&#8217;re looking for a party right now. The Democrat woke agenda doesn&#8217;t fit the workforce that we have in America right now. And so Sean and I spoke, Sean actually brought Lori to me and said, &#8220;What do you think about Lori? I think this is someone that the unions can support.&#8221; And I said, &#8220;I think that&#8217;s a great idea. Let&#8217;s talk to the president about it.&#8221; So we both visit with the president at different times about it. The president loved the idea, and that&#8217;s how it happened. So, I get that some of my conservative friends out there had reservations about it, but if we want to continue to win elections for the Republican Party and not go down this socialist woke agenda road that the Biden administration was trying to move us towards, then we got to understand we&#8217;re gonna have to allow some people in our party that we can welcome in and start working on things we have in common, not just focused on the differences.
JOHN: Well, that Big Tent approach clearly paid dividends in this last election for Trump, winning percentages of demographics we haven’t seen Republicans win in decades, as you said.
MULLIN: That&#8217;s right.
JOHN: Now you&#8217;re a member of the Senate GOP Deputy Whip team, which allows you to influence the legislative agenda significantly. What are your top legislative priorities for the 119th Congress?
MULLIN: Well deregulation is my biggest focus, the deregulation of the business sector. You’ve got to start with certain focuses and my focus is on energy. By the way, President Trump is all on board on this too, not just because it&#8217;s my agenda. He sees it the same way, because we both come from a business perspective. I tell everybody, when you make decisions, it will be based on two things: the way you were raised and your life experience. My life experience is business.  And you understand when you&#8217;re in business that everything that you factor as a cost starts and begins with energy. You can&#8217;t build a product and you can&#8217;t deliver a product with that without factoring in the energy cost because it takes energy to build it and it takes energy to deliver it. So, it&#8217;s always a baseline add-on when you&#8217;re talking about cost. So if you&#8217;re going to bring down inflation, you’ve got to bring down energy. The only way we bring down energy prices is you’ve got to make it conducive that people can trust their long term investment and not just four years at a time. But most energy companies are investing 15 to 20 years at a time when they look at returns. So you’ve got to have stability in the energy market. And that means you’ve got to have deregulation that&#8217;s not just an executive order, but it&#8217;s legislation and made into law. So it can&#8217;t be overturned on day one, like Joe Biden did to the Trump administration. So, stability in the regulatory market is my number one goal.
<div id="attachment_880601" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-880601" class="size-large wp-image-880601" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2200061297-863x576.jpg" alt="Elon Musk (L) holds a chainsaw with Argentine President Javier Milei during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort &amp; Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 20, 2025." width="863" height="576" />SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images</div>
JOHN: Final question. Now the big bugaboo for Democrats is DOGE and its leader Elon Musk. How do you and your Republican colleagues in the Senate feel about how DOGE is going about its business?
MULLIN: I can&#8217;t speak for everybody in the Senate, especially my colleagues, but I&#8217;ll take it back to what I said earlier. We all make decisions based on how we were raised and our life experiences. So when you look from a business perspective, not a political perspective, you understand that every successful business out there, large or small, has hired a consultant at some point to come in and overlook their business operations. Not that they don&#8217;t know what they&#8217;re doing, it&#8217;s just that a consultant comes in from an unbiased perspective and just simply looks at numbers. And as a business owner, sometimes you can have pet projects that you just continue to dump money into that doesn&#8217;t make any sense. And there&#8217;s no way for it to be successful, but you&#8217;re so invested in it, you just can&#8217;t find a way out. And when a consultant looks at it and goes, “Hey, this makes no sense,” it opens your eyes up. Well, take politics, for example, you&#8217;ve got someone that&#8217;s been in there for 40 years. They’ve got a project in their state that doesn&#8217;t make any sense to continue because it&#8217;s outdated, but they&#8217;re personally connected to it and they&#8217;re not going to let it pass. Well, you take Elon Musk, who&#8217;s the most successful entrepreneur we&#8217;ve had in our lifetime and he&#8217;s working for the federal government as a free consultant. Consultants are typically expensive — and he&#8217;s doing it for free and giving his resources for free, and he&#8217;s looking at these programs from an unbiased perspective. Just the numbers. Does it work for the taxpayers? Does it make sense? How much waste, fraud and abuse is in the taxpayer dollar right now? And he&#8217;s exposing it at alarming rates. The reason I say alarming is because you think, ”Why haven&#8217;t we seen this?” Just take Social Security alone.You see the amount of people who are over 150 that are still on Social Security. I&#8217;m thinking, “I don&#8217;t remember seeing that report.” We celebrate people when they turn 100, and you typically see those in the paper. 150? I think that&#8217;d be pretty much news. I haven&#8217;t seen any of these individuals, but they&#8217;re still on the books for Social Security. Just simply cleaning up things like that makes a huge difference. That&#8217;s what a consultant can do, and that&#8217;s the role that DOGE is playing with Elon Musk, and I look at it from that perspective. Like I said, I can talk to my other colleagues and see how they look at it. But that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been on all these media outlets saying — the same thing that I am saying to you: try and argue with that perspective. You can&#8217;t. Because it does make sense. That&#8217;s why, that&#8217;s why private companies do it.
JOHN: Yeah, it doesn&#8217;t. I think it&#8217;s making sense to a lot of Americans as they watch this, polling shows that Trump&#8217;s approval is higher than it&#8217;s ever been than at any point in his first term. So things are going pretty well. He&#8217;s got a lot of momentum right now.
MULLIN: He has highly favorable numbers in Oklahoma. Literally, the numbers just came out the other day. It just blows my mind that his numbers are that good, and I&#8217;m just speaking for Oklahoma. His numbers obviously are good across the country.
JOHN: Well, senator, thank you so much for taking the time.
MULLIN: Thank you. Appreciate it.
JOHN: That was Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma – and this has been a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/analyzing-trump-s-cabinet-with-senator-mullin-2-23-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday edition of Morning Wire</a>.
***

Senate HELP Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing For Lori Chavez-DeRemer

‘Grinding The Democrats Down’: Sen. Markwayne Mullin On Trump’s Cabinet And The GOP Game Plan

'Grinding The Democrats Down': Sen. Markwayne Mullin On Trump’s Cabinet And The GOP Game Plan

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

Energy

Federal Government

John Thune

kash patel

Morning Wire

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U.S. Senate

Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-lankford" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Lankford</a> (R-OK) on Tuesday introduced a bill to mandate a full review of the federal government’s handling of natural disasters as agencies like FEMA face <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rips-into-fema-says-it-is-getting-in-the-way-of-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticism</a> over their response to recent hurricanes. 
Lankford <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/ALL250752.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put forth</a> the ‘‘Natural Disaster Resilience and Recovery Accountability Act” to create a new commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the efficiency of the government&#8217;s natural disaster programs. The commission would examine how the government is using taxpayer dollars and devise policy recommendations to improve the federal response to natural disasters. 
“Oklahomans know the federal disaster system isn’t working,” Lankford told The Daily Wire. “President Trump is taking quick action to fix it, and my legislation builds on that by reviewing how federal tax dollars are spent on disasters and finding ways to make government more efficient.”
President Donald Trump has slammed FEMA over its sluggish response to aid flooded communities in North Carolina and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-fema-executive-order-takes-aim-at-supervisor-who-told-workers-to-skip-his-supporters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised concerns</a> about political bias at the agency pointing to a Daily Wire report showing how one supervisor ordered relief workers to skip homes with Trump flags. 
The legislation from Lankford, first shared with The Daily Wire, would create a 15-member commission composed of federal and state officials, relief workers, and other experts to “examine and recommend administrative and legislative reforms to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and budget funding of programs and activities of Federal agencies supporting natural disaster resilience and recovery.”
Trump on Friday signed an executive order that would create a 20-person council to conduct a full review of FEMA. The commission created by Lankford’s bill would follow that proposal and look at the full federal handling of and spending on disasters. Each federal program related to natural disasters would be put under the microscope of the commission for evaluation. 
Once assembled, the commission would have two years to produce a report with recommendations to improve the efficiency of the government’s response by evaluating all related federally funded activities. The report would be sent to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the House Oversight Committee. 
The commission would work with a variety of departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The commission would consider “potential administrative changes to the roles and responsibilities of the various Federal agencies involved in natural disaster resilience and recovery.”
Trump has promised to fundamentally reform FEMA and has floated the idea of getting rid of the agency altogether. He suggested handing over the responsibility of emergency responses to the states with funding from the federal government.
“I love Oklahoma, but you know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it,” Trump said last week. “And then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-calls-out-bureaucracy-slowing-federal-emergency-response-in-visit-to-virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reiterated</a> the Trump administration&#8217;s approach on Monday during a visit to flood-ravaged Virginia, saying that they would work to slash the bureaucracy from multiple federal departments holding up emergency relief.

U.S. Senate Meets To Vote On Proposed Continuing Resolution

EXCLUSIVE: Lankford Pushes For Full Probe Into The Government’s Disaster Response

FEMA

James Lankford

Natural Disaster

Thanks to the overwhelming efforts of everyday American parents who have refused to bow to the radical Left, the war on Christmas seems to have gone cold.
In recent years, public fights and lawsuits over Christmas events and displays dominated the headlines every December. This season, however, they appear to have subsided.
Parents have bravely pushed back against woke propaganda in the schools, elected better leaders, and have fought for their children’s education over woke indoctrination.
Most teachers and administrators no longer want the hassle, the conflict, or the public attention and scrutiny that these disagreements bring. While in some aspects this is good news, the reality is the damage has already been done — the status quo implemented during the period of lawsuits and school board debates remains.
Students are treated to inoffensive and meaningless “holiday” and “winter” events that look more like low-octane paganism than anything actually believed by the critical mass of the student body.
Of course, this was the long-term goal all along. Even if the Left lost in the courts, in too many cases they won in the classrooms. Because most teachers and administrators don’t want the hassle, the end result has been the same as if they had actually won in the courts and the legislatures.
This is a tragedy for our children and for our culture. Instead, this should be an opportunity for educators and parents to share not only the tidings of the seasons, but also the importance of our country’s robust history of religious liberty.
Public schools, of course, are not meant to be a means of taxpayer-funded evangelization. At the same time, they should not be places where such voluntary discussions are stifled or drowned out by artificially inoffensive celebrations. They should not be an excuse for our educators to look away from the role that religious liberty played in our founding and what it means today. Many of our founders’ ancestors braved the difficult voyage across the Atlantic and carved out new lives in an uncertain and unforgiving wilderness, driven by the need to live out their beliefs in accordance with their consciences. There’s a reason the freedoms of conscience are the first to be included in our Bill of Rights, after all.
When we fail to teach children the foundational things, we do them a grave disservice. Children are going to take in values from whatever they are taught. They learn just as much from the absence of a thing as they do from the thing itself. Instead of learning that we live in a country where beliefs both matter and are respected, they learn to relegate them to the back of their minds and hearts as mere matters of taste and preference.
That’s no way to go through life, and it’s no way to form citizens who are ready to inherit the kind of republic our founders intended for them.
At the same time, America’s school children are still being instructed in values and beliefs from the front of the classroom, just not traditionally religious ones. For years, they’ve been instructed in Critical Race Theory and gender ideology, thanks to the dictates and incentives of the federal Department of Education. Now, that’s about to change.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a></h3>
With a new administration, we have an opportunity to push out all of the woke, anti-American bureaucratic rot at the top of the national education system. Really, we should not have a national education system. The best way to address the problems coming from Washington would be to get rid of them altogether and eliminate the Department of Education like President Trump has promised.
In addition to creating a bureaucratic nexus to indoctrinate our kids from Washington, it has done absolutely nothing to improve education outcomes since its inception. Since Jimmy Carter established this indoctrination machine in 1980, every academic statistic has only declined. We need to return control of education back to the states, where parents are in the driver’s seat, not some D.C. bureaucrat dictating decisions from their ivory tower.
People forget this country — the greatest country in the history of the world — was built without a federal Department of Education. The minds who built this country and sustained it through its most trying times were educated in one-room schoolhouses. The generations who defeated the 20th century axis powers and put a man on the moon for the first time in human history were the product of state-run education systems. We do not need federal bureaucrats to flourish — we need parents to be empowered to help their children prosper. After all, students are the next leaders of our great nation. This Christmas season, we can start preparing them for it.
* * *
Ryan Walters is Superintendent of the Oklahoma State Department of Education. You can follow him on X: <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanWaltersSupt">@RyanWaltersSupt</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Christmas crib.

Thanks To Brave Parents, The War On Christmas Has Turned Cold 

Christmas

Critical Race Theory

Department of Education

Leftists

Parental Rights in Education

School Boards

Schools

Woke Culture

President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration is punishing Oklahoma for refusing to promote abortion, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford argued in an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court first obtained by The Daily Wire.
The statement of interest, which is signed by 19 members of Congress — including Senators Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Steve Daines of Montana, and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi — argues that the Biden administration suspended the $4.5 million Title X Family Planning grant formerly awarded to Oklahoma&#8217;s Department of Health as a way to punish the state for refusing to promote abortion.
In Oklahoma, abortions of unborn babies <a href="https://states.guttmacher.org/policies/oklahoma/abortion-policies">are only allowed</a> if the health of the mother is in danger.
The Department of Health and Human Services had awarded the $4.5 million to the Oklahoma State Department of Health to spend on &#8220;family planning services&#8221; — then rescinded the sum effective May 24, 2023, after finding that Oklahoma would not spend the money on abortion. In September, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-title-x-funding-oklahoma/">rejected Oklahoma&#8217;s request</a> that the High Court restore the federal family planning grant that the Biden administration had removed.
Lankford filed the brief on Monday, in reference to Oklahoma v. Department of Health and Human Services. It argues that &#8220;the right of conscience is fundamental to our American freedoms&#8221; and that this freedom should be guaranteed by &#8220;protecting all health care providers from being forced to perform, refer, or pay for elective abortions.&#8221;
“President Biden is obsessed with elective abortion on demand,&#8221; Lankford told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Oklahomans should not have to miss out on funding for critical health services for women, AIDS testing, and cancer screenings because of the Administration’s extreme abortion agenda. I am proud to lead my colleagues on this brief that puts actual health care ahead of politics.&#8221;
The lawmakers describe themselves, in the statement of interest, as &#8220;pro-life elected representatives&#8221; who are committed to &#8220;protecting mothers, unborn children, and families from the harms of the abortion industry.&#8221;
These lawmakers have voted annually to adopt the Weldon Amendment, they wrote, which protects health care institutions from discrimination against those institutions&#8217; right to &#8220;conscientiously object against ending unborn human life.&#8221;
Lankford has pushed back against the removal of the millions of dollars stripped from Oklahoma. He introduced a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2539">bill</a> in July 2023 that <a href="https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-leads-fight-to-protect-oklahomas-health-care-funding/">would have clarified</a> that the Department of Health and Human Services can&#8217;t discriminate against Title X grantees for their pro-life stances. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
And in June 2023, Lankford <a href="https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-leads-delegation-letter-to-hhs-challenging-withdrawal-of-health-care-grants-because-of-oklahomas-strong-pro-life-laws/">led Oklahoma congressional delegation</a> in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, an outspoken pro-abortion Biden administration official. The letter argued that “HHS has chosen to prioritize abortion instead of prioritizing actual health care, by suspending Title X funding awarded to OSDH because of its obligation to abide by federal law and the state laws of Oklahoma.&#8221;
&#8220;It is absurd that HHS is suspending funds previously granted to OSDH for its refusal to refer for a procedure that the underlying federal statute explicitly forbids,&#8221; Lankford, and a number of his colleagues, wrote in the letter at the time.
<a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/24-437-Brief-of-Amici-Curiae-19-Members-of-Congress4.pdf">Click here to read the full amicus brief.</a>

Congressional Lawmakers React To The Expiration Of The Title 42 Border Policy

Biden Admin Punishing Oklahoma For Refusing To Promote Abortion, Senators Tell Supreme Court

Abortion

The Islamic man from Afghanistan who was arrested in Oklahoma on Monday for allegedly planning an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ISIS terror attack</a> on Election Day reportedly worked as a security guard in Afghanistan for the CIA.
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/afghan-accused-plotting-terror-attack-worked-cia-guard-officials-say-rcna174783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi had &#8220;minimal interaction with Americans and he was not a CIA informant or a member of the U.S.-trained and armed paramilitary force known as the &#8216;Zero Units.'&#8221;
After news broke of his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/afghan-who-entered-u-s-under-biden-harris-arrested-for-isis-attack-planned-for-election-day" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrest</a>, questions immediately began to swirl about how the Biden-Harris administration failed to properly vet Tawhedi when he was evacuated out of Afghanistan following the administration&#8217;s disastrous withdraw in 2021.
Charging documents stated that he was brought to Oklahoma by the administration under its special immigrant visa program.
However, sources told NBC News that the charging documents were wrong and he did not enter the U.S. under the special immigrant visa program.
Instead, he entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole, which &#8220;entails far less screening than a special immigrant visa,&#8221; the report said.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
Officials claimed that once he entered the U.S., he applied for a special immigrant visa and was vetted through that program, but even though he was approved, he never took the steps to make it official. No further details were provided.
The screening process included &#8220;searching for any possible ties to terrorism, ISIS or the Taliban using information from his electronic devices, biometrics and other identity information to search the extensive intelligence databases the U.S. compiled over 20 years of collecting in Afghanistan,&#8221; the report said.
Tawhedi was charged with providing, attempting to provide, and conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization; and knowingly receiving, conspiring to receive, and attempting to receive firearms and ammunition to be used to commit a felony or Federal crime of terrorism.
Prosecutors say that Tawhedi and a juvenile co-conspirator (CC 1) from Afghanistan took steps to raise the funds needed to carry out the attack and repatriate their family members to Afghanistan a couple weeks prior to the attack by selling their home and personal property.
CC 1 is Tawhedi’s brother-in-law and was brought to the U.S. in 2018.
The suspects had an extensive amount of ISIS propaganda that encouraged terrorist attacks on the U.S. and posed for photos while making ISIS hand gestures.
Prosecutors said Tawhedi donated to a charity in March 2024 that was a front group for funneling money to ISIS, which is a crime.
The FBI started monitoring him after the donation and tracked down his social media accounts and encrypted Telegram account where he was connected to another Islamic extremist who was involved in ISIS recruitment.
Tawhedi sent CC 1 other contacts and encouraged them to be put into contact with the ISIS recruitment group.
In early September, an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS 1) reached out to the suspects after they put the family’s home and personal possessions up for sale to fund the attack and their family’s repatriation to Afghanistan.
CHS 1 purchased a desktop computer and laptop from the suspects and told them he needed the devices for a new gun business that he was starting.
From that point, CHS 1 built a relationship with the suspects and encouraged them to come shooting and told them he would sell them weapons.
Messages on his Telegram account that were obtained by investigators allegedly show Tawhedi admitting to illegally purchasing two AK-47s and 500 rounds of ammunition. After he took delivery of the rifles and ammunition, undercover agents arrested both suspects.
Tawhedi said in his communications that the terrorist attack was planned for Election Day. In a post-arrest interview, investigators say that he admitted to the plot and said that he and CC 1 expected to be martyred during the attack, which was “targeting large gatherings of people,” court documents said.

Islamic State/Iraq/Syria: A masked Islamic State soldier poses holding the ISIL banner somewhere in the deserts of Iraq or Syria. ISIL publicity image, 2015

Disturbing Details Emerge About Afghan Arrested For Planning ISIS Attack On Election Day

2024 Election

Afghanistan

ISIS

Terrorism

An email sent to Oklahoma State University’s psychology department solicited students to participate in a “Week of Rage” hosted by the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The email, sent by the psychology department’s Student Diversity Committee (SDC), said that the “Week of Rage” would begin on October 7 – the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and wounded more than 5,000.
“Since it’s been a year of genocide in Palestine, the students are continuing their commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian people and the end of the Zionist regime through a week of action from October 7th-11th,” the email said, according to a copy posted to X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The official diversity committee at Oklahoma State University’s psychology department sent an email soliciting students to participate in the &#8220;Week of Rage&#8221; sponsored by SJP.
The first event is on Oct. 7th to celebrate the massacre. This is systemic antisemitism. <a href="https://t.co/yQbatSzSwj">pic.twitter.com/yQbatSzSwj</a>
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) <a href="https://twitter.com/EYakoby/status/1842593911719739426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The email listed the events for each day of the week, which includes a “Vigil For Our Martyrs” on Monday night, a “Demand Divestment” protest on Tuesday, a bake sale on Wednesday, a panel on Thursday, and a movie on Friday.
In response to the post about the email, Oklahoma State’s official X account said the email “was student-authored and distributed by a student group. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This email was student-authored and distributed by a student group. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university.
— Oklahoma State Univ. (@okstate) <a href="https://twitter.com/okstate/status/1842645329348342167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a statement to The Daily Wire, OSU further said:
<blockquote>This email was student-authored and distributed only within the psychology department by a student group on campus. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university’s administration. Student use of university email to distribute political content is protected by the First Amendment. 
At OSU, we support free speech and an environment that encourages the sharing of different ideas and perspectives. We believe a robust public discourse is a contribution to the process of addressing society’s most pressing challenges, which is our charge as a land-grant institution.
We appreciate the opportunity to educate students and the public about the First Amendment and protected vs. unprotected speech on public campuses.
</blockquote>
After being pressed about whether the language of SDC&#8217;s email was simply &#8220;the sharing of different ideas and perspectives,&#8221; OSU provided the following statement, which it has published on Sunday:
Oklahoma State University did not and does not officially support or endorse the events or political positions promoted by the student chapter of SJP. OSU supports our students’ free speech and free assembly rights. We have campus policies in place to protect all students and ensure academic instruction is not disrupted. As this week unfolds, we will enforce those rules across campus, and we will be swift to respond to any unlawful events. We encourage all students, staff, and faculty to remain peaceful and respectful and adhere to the principles of the Cowboy Code.
OSU didn’t respond to a Daily Wire inquiry about whether there would be consequences for those behind the email, who used a university mailing list and the official sounding “osupsychdiversity” account name to send the email.
The language of the email from the SDC would appear to violate OSU’s current <a href="https://campuslife.okstate.edu/student-conduct/site-files/documents/code24-25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Code of Conduct</a>, specifically its rule against discrimination.
&#8220;Discrimination includes but is not limited to, disparate treatment directed toward an individual or group of individuals based on sex, race, color, sexual orientation, age, status as a veteran, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, sex stereotype, national origin, religion or a qualified individual with a disability that adversely affects their employment or education,” the code says.
It is also unclear whether the SDC is a student group in the same way that SJP is, since the SDC isn’t a chapter of a national group and is specific to the school.
Other universities are also facing anti-Semitism on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks against Israel. Protesters at the City University of New York vandalized the school’s Advanced Science Research Center, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/world-news/oct-7-anniversary-live-updates-nyc-protests-and-memorials-around-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Pro-Palestinian protesters have also gathered at Columbia University, but Pro-Israel protesters are drowning them out with chants of “Bring them home,” referring to the 97 people – including 7 Americans – still <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/1-year-later-families-demand-action-as-hamas-holds-nearly-100-hostages-from-october-7-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being held hostage</a> in Gaza.
This post has been updated to include further comment from OSU.

Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University Student Group Sends Email Promoting Pro-Palestinian Events

Anti-Semitism

College

Students for Justice in Palestine

A judge in Oklahoma has blocked the Biden administration’s guidelines that force public schools to allow trans-identifying males into girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports.
Oklahoma is now the 22nd state to block the new Title IX rules, which would redefine “sex” to include gender identity and sexuality. Since they were issued in April, courts in eight districts have barred the regulations. The rules are set to take effect on August 1 for all states that have not received a preliminary injunction.
On Wednesday, Judge Jodi Dishman, a Trump-nominated judge, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.okwd.126841/gov.uscourts.okwd.126841.48.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> in favor of Oklahoma’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the federal guidelines. Dishman issued her ruling even after numerous Blue States filed an amicus brief arguing against the injunction.
The only loss for advocates of due process and women’s sports came from a district court rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction by Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. The states have filed an emergency motion for a stay of the regulations, but the outcome is in doubt.
In addition to the rules being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-title-ix-rules-allowing-men-in-womens-sports-blocked-in-21-states-where-things-stand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked in 22 states</a>, dozens of K-12 schools and universities across the country have been blocked from implementing the rules.
Title IX is a federal statute that bans sex discrimination, but the Biden administration has expanded the definition to include sexual identity and gender identification. Courts across the country have determined that this expanded definition is wrong.
On June 13, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, issued <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-blocks-bidens-transgender-title-ix-rules-in-4-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a preliminary injunction</a> against the Biden rules while calling them an “abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy.” His ruling blocked the new guidance from taking effect in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana.
“Title IX was written and intended to protect biological women from discrimination,” Doughty <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.205659/gov.uscourts.lawd.205659.53.0.pdf">wrote</a>. “Such purpose makes it difficult to sincerely argue that, at the time of enactment, ‘discrimination on the basis of sex’ included gender identity, sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics. Enacting the changes in the Final Rule would subvert the original purpose of Title IX: protecting biological females from discrimination.”
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, a George W. Bush appointee, issued <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/court-issues-preliminary-injunction-on-bidens-title-ix-rewrite-stops-it-in-6-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a preliminary injunction</a> blocking the rules in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. A few weeks later, on July 2, U.S. District Judge John Broomes, another Trump appointee, issued a similar ruling blocking the new Title IX rules in Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Broomes’ <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/KansasStateofetalvUnitedStatesDepartmentofEducationetalDocketNo52?doc_id=X7VSH1UVO6B9K1AAI088P6TS9IF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruling</a> went further, however,  and included <a href="https://www.scag.gov/media/pskl4phx/ks-v-u-s-dept-of-education-list-of-schools-enjoined.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a massive list</a> of K-12 schools and universities across the country where the rules would also be blocked. That list came from schools attended by children of the defendants in that lawsuit, Moms for Liberty, and members of the Young America’s Foundation.
On July 11, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, another Trump appointee, issued another ruling that blocked the Biden Title IX guidance in Texas, Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/transgender-policy-texas-schools-donald-trump-kacsmaryk-title-ix-1924387" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
On July 24, U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel, a Clinton appointee, <a href="https://t.co/mdh7ZBIJAZ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> the rules in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
That brought the total number of states where the rules can’t be implemented to 21, and Oklahoma now brings the number to 22.
The Biden administration has argued to at least implement the Title IX guidance that doesn’t include transgender capitulations – such as the provisions regarding reduced due process protections – in the states that have blocked the rules so far, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4787089-doj-asks-supreme-court-restore-title-ix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
In the rulings against the regulations, however, judges have noted that because of the Biden administration’s redefinition of the word “sex” to include gender identity, transgender issues can’t be carved out from the rules as a whole.
“[T]he fact that the definition permeates the entire Rule, the Court concludes that it would be a nearly impossible task to excise the remaining regulations without also eliminating those regulations that involve sex discrimination,” Judge Sippel wrote in his ruling. Other judges wrote similar statements.

Title IX Protest

Oklahoma Becomes 22nd State To Block Biden’s New Title IX Rules That Would Allow Men In Women’s Sports

Oklahoma Becomes 22nd State To Block Biden's New Title IX Rules That Would Allow Men In Women's Sports

Biden Administration

Title IX

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