A federal judge has declared Tennessee’s restriction on religious charter schools unconstitutional, ruling in favor of a Christian nonprofit seeking to establish a charter school in Knox County.
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley of the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled Friday that the Knox County Board of Education cannot enforce the state’s requirement that charter schools operate without religious affiliation. The decision marks a legal victory for Wilberforce Academy, which challenged the restriction after being prevented from completing its application to open a Christian charter school.
“The First Amendment does not permit Tennessee to open its charter school program to private participants and then exclude them because they seek to exercise their religion,” Atchley wrote. “Tennessee retains broad authority to structure its public-education system — and it need not create a charter school program at all. But having chosen to make that option generally available to private participants, the State cannot condition participation on the surrender of a constitutionally protected right, no matter how the program is described.”
In his ruling, Atchley, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, determined that “Tennessee’s Nonsectarian Requirement for its otherwise generally available charter school program violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.” However, he denied Wilberforce Academy’s request for nominal damages from the school board.
The court relied extensively on the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, which found that Maine could not exclude religious schools from a state tuition assistance program available to families. Atchley also cited the high court’s 2021 ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.
Wilberforce Academy filed its lawsuit in December 2025, challenging provisions of the Tennessee Charter School Act of 2002 that barred religious nonprofit organizations from sponsoring charter schools and required participating schools to “[o]perate as public, nonsectarian, [and] nonreligious” institutions. The organization sought to establish a “Christian charter school” in Knox County.
After submitting a letter of intent to the Knox County Board of Education in late 2025, Wilberforce was unable to complete the application process because of restrictions on religious sponsors. In May, Atchley determined that the academy could pursue its legal challenge without first submitting an application against what he described as an “allegedly unconstitutional barrier” to applying.
Although Tennessee lawmakers amended the charter school law earlier this year to permit religious nonprofit organizations to sponsor schools, the requirement that charter schools remain nonsectarian was left unchanged.
According to its website, Wilberforce Academy plans to begin serving kindergarten through third-grade students throughout Knox County before gradually expanding enrollment through eighth grade.
