A federal judge in Knoxville ruled Friday that Tennessee cannot keep a Christian school out of its charter program just because it is Christian. Headlines say the judge "green-lights religious charter schools." The 66-page order is narrower than that, and it carries a detail most coverage skipped: no government lawyer stood up to defend the ban.

What did Judge Atchley actually order?

U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. of the Eastern District of Tennessee, a Trump appointee according to the Christian Post, filed his memorandum opinion and order on Nov. 6 in The Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville v. Knox County Board of Education, Case No. 3:25-cv-584.

The law at issue is Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-13-111(a)(2), which requires every charter school to "[o]perate as public, nonsectarian, [and] nonreligious." The judge declared that requirement unconstitutional "as applied to Wilberforce" and permanently barred the Knox County board from enforcing it "against The Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville in all future application cycles."

Does this open charters to religious schools statewide?

Not on its face. The injunction names one board and one school. Atchley also wrote that the order "does not mean that KCBE will ultimately approve Wilberforce's application," and that the board "may find other nondiscriminatory reasons" to deny it, just not the nonsectarian rule.

The reasoning travels further than the order. The judge held that privately run Tennessee charter schools are not state actors, and he called the intervenors' reliance on the Oklahoma Supreme Court's opposite conclusion in the St. Isidore case "unpersuasive." That is why a Knoxville defense attorney, Josh Hedrick, told WVLT the ruling could reach schools of other faiths, while still calling it "somewhat of a narrow decision."

Who defended Tennessee's ban?

Not the government. The opinion says the Knox County board "declined to take a position on the merits" and "the State of Tennessee declined to intervene." The court let two outside groups in to argue the other side: Knox County taxpayers with children in public schools, joined by clergy including Rev. Dr. Richard Coble, and a second group of intervenors. Knox News reports the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Southern Poverty Law Center joined on that side.

That gap mattered. Under strict scrutiny the government carries the burden, and Atchley wrote that "the government has failed to brief whether the provision survives strict scrutiny."

The state's silence was no accident. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's Opinion No. 25-019, dated Nov. 25, 2025, asked whether the ban violates the Free Exercise Clause and answered "Likely yes." Chalkbeat reported in February that he would not step in, leaving the district to defend a law his office doubts. The Legislature also dropped a separate bar on religious sponsors earlier this year, the opinion notes, but left the nonsectarian rule in place.

Why the Supreme Court hasn't settled this

It tried. In May 2025 the justices split 4-4 over Oklahoma's St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. The Congressional Research Service notes the one-sentence order affirmed the Oklahoma court without reasoning and left the constitutional question open. A tie sets no national rule, which is why cases like Wilberforce's keep coming.

Atchley leaned on cases the full Court did decide, including Carson v. Makin (2022), where the justices ruled Maine could not shut religious schools out of a tuition program. "That is discrimination against religion," he wrote, quoting Carson.

What happens next?

Knox County Schools spokesperson Carly Harrington told WVLT the district and its Law Department are "reviewing the opinion." Knox News reports the intervening groups are weighing an appeal, which would go to the Sixth Circuit. Wilberforce executive director Zach Wishart called the ruling a "victory for religious liberty."

Wilberforce still has to file a full application and win approval. Knox News reports letters of intent for the next cycle are due Dec. 3 and applications Feb. 1. The judge also turned down Wilberforce's request for nominal damages, ruling the board had no discretion under state law and shares the state's immunity.

The plain reading: a Christian school won the right to be judged on its plan instead of its faith, in one county, against a law the state itself would not defend. If the Sixth Circuit agrees, this case could be the one that brings the 4-4 question back to a full Supreme Court.

Header photo: downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Photo by Will Fisher via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.