A split U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involving religious rights in American education.

With only eight justices voting, the 4-4 tie leaves in place an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that a public religious charter school would violate the separation of church and state.

Cavanagh was on the state's high court from 1983 to 2014, which is tied for Michigan's longest supreme court tenure ever.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, also a Republican, sued to stop the school. He called the 4-4 vote “a resounding victory for religious liberty” that also will ensure that “Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children.”

The case in Philadelphia involved Alpha Painting & Construction and a project manager, Stamatios Kousisis, who was convicted of fraud in 2018.

A Democratic representative from Georgia reintroduced a bill to create term limits for Supreme Court justices.