ICYMI: New Accountable.US Report Details Key Advocate’s Close Ties to Conservative Justices as Supreme Court Prepares to Hear Religious Charter School Case

In letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, Accountable.US Urged Justice Thomas to Recuse

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In case you missed it, Accountable.US last week published a 30-page investigative report revealing that Prof. Nicole Stelle Garnett—a key advisor to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and a faculty fellow at Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Clinic—has deep personal and professional connections to multiple Supreme Court justices who will soon decide the case Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond (consolidated with St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond).

Immediately after the report’s release, Accountable.US sent a formal letter to Chief Justice John Roberts urging Justice Clarence Thomas, who has longstanding close ties to Garnett, to recuse himself, warning that his participation would only deepen public concern about fairness and trust in the Court.

The findings come as the Court heads toward oral arguments this Wednesday, in a case that could open the door to taxpayer-funded religious charter schools nationwide.

Key Findings of the report: 

• Garnett’s 2020 Manhattan Institute paper mapped out the exact strategy driving this case: apply for a religious charter, sue when blocked, and force a First Amendment test. The paper sparked officials at St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to seek her help. ​ 
• Garnett clerked for Justice Thomas, hosted him and his wife in her home, and publicly calls him her “mentor, teacher, friend—and hero.” Her husband has co-taught seminars with the justice. ​ 
• Justice Amy Coney Barrett—Garnett’s longtime friend—has already stepped aside from the case. The report reveals that Thomas’s ties warrant the same action. ​ 
• Garnett is a Federalist Society director and Manhattan Institute senior fellow, linking her to Leonard Leo’s dark-money empire and billionaire Paul Singer—both connected to sitting justices. ​

“Justice Thomas has a blatant and quite obvious connection to one of the petitioners’ counsels in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, and the proposed school at the center of the case, through his personal and professional relationship with Garnett, which raises serious questions as to his ability to be fair and impartial in deciding this monumental case pending before the Court,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04), ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee over courts. “Justice Barrett also has a close relationship with Garnett and recused herself, and Justice Thomas should do the same. Justice Thomas should not be the sole decider on whether he should recuse, which is why there should be a binding and enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court. Americans need to have confidence that justices are being held to the same ethical standards that bind lower court judges.”

“This is exactly the kind of situation the recusal law was written for,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. “When someone that close to you is at the heart of a case, you don’t get to weigh in. Justice Thomas shouldn’t be anywhere near this decision. This case isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader strategy by the far-right—and Justice Thomas is personally connected to the people pushing it. He has no business ruling on this case.”

Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond is poised to be the most consequential church-state decision in decades. For the first time, the Court will decide whether a publicly funded charter school may operate as an explicitly religious institution. A ruling in favor of St. Isidore could open the floodgates for taxpayer-financed religious charter schools nationwide, redirecting public-school dollars to a faith-based curriculum, eroding long-standing Establishment Clause protections, and altering the legal framework that governs school-choice programs in all 50 states. 

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