If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

The Oklahoma Supreme Court was on point last week when it paused state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ schemes to slip Bibles into public school classrooms.

Walters’ shenanigans are shameful. His indifference to the Oklahoma Constitution’s strict church-state separation invites lawsuits that squander precious taxpayer dollars better devoted to lifting Sooner schools out of the nation’s bottom five.

If, however, there’s a silver lining to Walters’ impudence, it comes from the fact the state’s highest court was given the opportunity to demonstrate it is working as intended – independent umpires, calling legal balls and strikes. Period.

That is something many Oklahomans take for granted. They should not.

Why? Because while some in Walters’ world squeal about woke, liberal jurists blocking God from Oklahoma classrooms, legislative leaders are taking direct aim at the Supreme Court’s independence. They want to turn it into a wholly-owned subsidiary of two of the state’s political powers: corporate elites and religious fundamentalists.

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton’s SJR 6 would ask voters to abolish the independent, non-partisan Judicial Nominating Commission which vets candidates for open Supreme Court seats, then sends the governor three finalists from which to choose a nominee.