The Supreme Court on Thursday, in a 4-4 ruling, said Oklahoma cannot create the nation's first religious charter school funded directly with taxpayer dollars.

Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general had argued that drastic consequences would follow if the justices sided with the school.

The Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4, blocking the attempt to establish the nation's first religious charter school.

The case, a major test of the separation of church and state, was an unexpected loss for those advocating a greater role for religion in public life.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday that the state of Oklahoma will not be permitted to create the first-ever religious public charter school with a deadlocked decision only a sentence in length.

The justices announced they were split 4-4 in a test case heard last month from Oklahoma, which blocks the new Catholic charter school in the state.

In a 4-to-4 decision, the court upheld a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that blocked the school. An evenly divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett's exchange with Trump Solicitor General John Sauer on court precedents in a birthright citizenship case draws attention and raises concerns among Trump allies.