The order comes from a lawsuit filed by parents, faith leaders and advocacy organizations against Walters, the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the State Board of Education and the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which oversees purchasing contracts.
OMES asked the court to order it stop processing RFPs on classroom Bibles until a final ruling is decided. The suit’s petitioners joined OMES in that request and also asked for a stay of another RFP for Biblical instructional materials for elementary students.
The court granted both requests but held off ruling on the lawsuit’s main ask — to enjoin Walters and his agency from implementing any of his Bible education mandates. That call was deferred to the decisional stage.
The suit was filed in October to stop Walters’ June 2024 directive that requires Bibles in every classroom — or as was later clarified, some classrooms — and use them as an instructional resource. The mandate has garnered pushback from schools across the state.
Petitioners include Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU and ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
“Superintendent Ryan Walters has been abusing his power, and the court checked those abuses today,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “Our diverse coalition of families and clergy remains united against Walters’s extremism and in favor of a core First Amendment principle: the separation of church and state.”
The original RFP for classroom Bibles appeared to be narrowly tailored to Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, which is endorsed by President Donald Trump. That RFP was withdrawn, and the department filed an amended request that slightly widened the scope for the Bibles.
However, the department has continued to prefer the God Bless the USA Bibles, as evidenced by the purchase and disbursement of 500 of them to Oklahoma Advanced Placement U.S. Government classes. Because the 500 Bibles fell just under the purchasing threshold of $25,000, the department was not required to engage in a bidding process, thereby bypassing the RFP issue at the center of the lawsuit.
Walters also recently joined with Greenwood on a nationwide campaign for donations for Bibles in classrooms. That came one day after the State Senate rebuffed Walters’ budget request for $3 million for the purchase of classroom Bibles.
In a statement to StateImpact, Walters said the Bible is a “cornerstone” of the nation’s history.
“We will continue fighting to ensure students have access to this foundational text in the classroom,” Walters said.
