Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the spiritual care of Catholic members of the United States armed forces, released a strongly worded statement raising objections to the plan to broadcast the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. He also declared that Catholic members of the US Army must not participate in the firing squad.
  • In Lajara v. McMenamin, a Pennsylvania appeals court vacated a custody order that prohibited either parent from influencing, restricting or limiting their child’s participation in religious services, events or activities.
  • Last week, the United Kingdom’s Home Office released the Official Statistics on Hate Crimes in England and Wales for the Year Ending March 2026, which indicated that religion-based hate crimes increased 13% from the prior year.
  • In Domanic v. Christian Brothers Automative Corporation, the 5th Circuit held that a Texas religion-based franchisor did not violate federal civil rights laws by requiring that its franchisees be professing Christians.
  • A Christian evangelist filed suit earlier this month in an Arizona federal district court challenging Tucson’s decision to exclude religious, political, and issue-based leafleting at an annual holiday display. The complain alleges this exclusion violates plaintiff’s free speech, free exercise and due process rights.
  • Christian Counselors in Lincoln Nebraska filed suit last week in federal district court to enjoin enforcement of city ordinances that prohibit conversion therapy for minors, alleging that the challenged rules are almost identical to the Colorado statute that the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional on free speech grounds in Chiles v. Salazar.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around The Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Catholic order’s challenge to a denial of a permit to build a shrine next to its church. The case could provide clarity on protections for houses of worship against restrictive local zoning.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court may also take up the Texas and Louisiana Ten Commandments classroom laws, according to CBS’s new-term preview.
  • The Archdiocese of St. Louis sued in federal district court over a detention center policy that bars priests from giving Communion and hearing confessions, claiming the policy denies detainees spiritual care core to their faith.
  • A federal district court in New Jersey dismissed without prejudice the Justice Department’s FACE Act suit over a 2024 protest outside a synagogue, ruling that the complaint did not allege a violation of the statute’s protections for worship.
  • Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs reporting directly to him to advocate for military chaplains and religious support.
  • The Justice Department’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced the first stop of a national “American Tour Against Hate” in Michigan.
  • President Trump issued a Columbus Day proclamation that invokes devotion to God in describing the nation’s origins.
  • In his new book, So Ordered, Justice Alito said that the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized marriage equality in all 50 states, was “perhaps the decisive point in our nation’s turn against religious liberty.”

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Legal Spirits 083: Tradition and the Constitution

Mark welcomes back his friend and former colleague, Professor Marc DeGirolami of the Catholic University of America, for a conversation about Marc’s new book, The Constitution of Practice. Drawing on questions they have discussed and debated for years, Mark and Marc explore the case for constitutional traditionalism, how it differs from originalism, and what the Supreme Court’s turn to “history and tradition” means for the Establishment Clause. Mark presses Marc on some of the harder questions for a traditionalist approach: how to identify the relevant tradition, what to do about bad traditions, and whether in a country as diverse as the United States constitutional law should leave more room for regional and local variation. Listen in!

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Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • The Ninth Circuit rejected an effort to remove a nearly century-old cross and longstanding nativity display at the historic El Pueblo monument in Los Angeles. 
  • In a speech to sick people and caregivers, the Pope Leo denounced France’s recent legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Catholic Church has continued to push against assisted suicide laws in the U.S. 
  • A federal district court in Oklahoma ruled the state may not single out religious schools for exclusion from public charter funding on the basis of religion.
  • A federal judge in Tennessee dismissed most of the claims against Southern Baptist Convention leaders in a lawsuit filed by a former SBC seminary professor David Sills, who lost his job due to sexual misconduct allegations.
  • The Muslim Center of New Jersey is suing the Marlboro Township, New Jersey zoning board, council, mayor and others, alleging religious discrimination and violations of the community’s right to worship after a five-year application process to build a mosque ended in a denial.
  • The Chicago Immigration Court ruled that the U.S. can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on the grounds that he is a threat to national security.