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 upheld an injunction⁠ blocking enforcement of a California law that restricted employers from requiring employees to attend meetings concerning political or religious matters, holding that the law infringed employers’ free speech rights.
  • A former Texas public school teacher sued his school district⁠, alleging that evangelical Christian prayers at mandatory staff meetings violated the First Amendment.
  • A Maryland federal district court declined to grant additional injunctive relief⁠ to a rabbi challenging a county firearms restriction that prevents him from carrying a gun while walking to synagogue on the Sabbath.
  • A California appellate court rejected First Amendment challenges⁠ to the admission of evidence concerning Scientology’s teachings in the criminal trial of actor Danny Masterson.
  • A Florida federal district court dismissed a pastor’s lawsuit⁠ challenging the denial of a property tax exemption for church property, holding that the Tax Injunction Act barred federal court intervention.
  • A New York appellate court upheld penalties⁠ against a clothing retailer that refused to sell a bridal outfit for a same-sex wedding, rejecting the retailer’s First Amendment defense.
  • A Michigan federal district court dismissed a former school bus driver’s lawsuit⁠ challenging her termination for distributing candy bearing religious messages to students, holding that her conduct was not protected private religious expression.


Posted on by L&R Forum

Mattone Center Hosts Reading Group on C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”

This fall, the Mattone Center  hosted a reading group that brought together students and alumni to explore questions of faith, morality, law, and the human experience through C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. Mark Lanier, an attorney, scholar, and founder of the Lanier Theological Library in Houston led the four-part series at his firm’s office in Midtown Manhattan. He guided participants through Lewis’s influential work, which began as a series of BBC radio broadcasts during World War II and later appeared as a book. The group examined Lewis’s effort to articulate the core beliefs shared across Christian traditions, using his arguments as a starting point for thoughtful discussion about morality, responsibility, and what it means to live a good life.

The discussions began with Lewis’s argument that people recognize a moral law they did not create, yet repeatedly fail to live up to it. From there, the group considered Lewis’s Christian explanation for the gap between moral knowledge and human behavior, including the roles of human freedom, evil, and Christ’s atonement. The sessions then turned to the practical demands of Christian conduct, exploring forgiveness, pride, humility, and the limits of law in shaping individual character and a just society. These themes raised questions particularly relevant to the legal profession: Can law establish the standards necessary for a good society without being able to make people good? Can forgiveness coexist with punishment and accountability? When does professional ambition become pride? In the final session, participants considered Lewis’s reflections on the Trinity, individualism and community, the purposes of church and state, and his central claim that Christianity seeks not merely outwardly respectable behavior, but the transformation of the whole person.

For law students, the reading group offered an opportunity to step beyond the rules, doctrines, and analytical frameworks that ordinarily shape legal education and reflect on the moral questions underlying the practice of law. Lewis’s arguments invited participants to consider both the power and the limitations of legal institutions: law can establish standards, identify wrongdoing, assign responsibility, and provide remedies, but it cannot by itself cultivate the virtues on which a healthy society depends. Discussions of forgiveness and accountability also offered a way to examine the distinction between pursuing justice and seeking vengeance, while reflections on pride challenged students to think critically about competition, ambition, and professional success. By connecting a classic work of Christian thought with questions about legal responsibility, public life, and personal character, the group created space for students to engage with difficult ideas, test their assumptions, and consider not only what lawyers do but what kind of people they aspire to become.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

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 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.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • A federal judge ruled that Oklahoma cannot exclude a Jewish charter school from the state’s charter school program because of its religious character. 
  • The Eighth Circuit heard arguments over Arkansas’s law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom. 
  • An Oregon mother sued a public school district for refusing to reimburse her for Christian homeschooling materials while providing reimbursements for secular materials. 
  • A dispute over access to a Jewish rabbinical court reached the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. 
  • Two Christian student organizations sued Virginia State University, alleging that the public university discriminated against them in access to campus recognition and benefits because of their religious requirements for student leaders. 

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • In Lewis v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the 9th Circuit upheld a jury’s verdict against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). The jury found BART failed to show that accommodating employees’ religious objections to the Covid vaccine would have imposed undue hardship on BART. In his concurrence, Judge Nelson took the position that the Supreme Court case Employment Division v. Smith was “demonstrably erroneous” and “is inconsistent with history and tradition.”
  • Last week, Planned Parenthood filed suit in Wisconsin challenging the state’s laws requiring abortions to be performed only by physicians, and not by qualified advance practice clinicians. They are also challenging the state’s 24-hour waiting period after examination and consultation with a physician before an abortion can be performed.
  • The United Kingdom’s passed a new law, the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which requires reporting of child sex abuse. MP Ben Obese-Jecty has made clear that “The Crime and Policing Act 2026 does not provide any exemption from mandatory reporting on the basis of religious practice, or the setting in which information is received.”
  • DOJ announced that it has reached a settlement with Lincoln Memorial University to resolve complaints of discriminatory treatment of Jewish students. As a result of the settlement, “LMU-DCOM will revise its absence policy to allow excused absences for religious reasons on the same basis as non-religious reasons.”
  • A group of Christian doctors in Colorado filed suit last week in federal district court alleging that the state is violating their 1st and 14th Amendment rights by applying to them the Colorado Supreme Court’s interpretation of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act. They contend, among other things, that the court’s interpretation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act “now forces doctors to medically transition their patients—including children—even when doing so violates their conscience and medical judgment.”
  • A Michigan state appellate court upheld the dismissal on ecclesiastical abstention grounds of defamation, breach of contract, and other related claims filed by an assistant imam against his mosque and its board of trustees.

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. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in urging the Supreme Court to reject a broad application of the “finality” rule that subjects religious liberty plaintiffs to drawn-out proceedings.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by a Catholic mother seeking a religious exemption from New York’s school vaccine mandates.
  • A federal district court in Maryland temporarily barred Montgomery County from enforcing a gun ban against a Jewish synagogue, holding that the synagogue was likely to succeed on its Second Amendment and Free Exercise claims, and that the county had not shown a sufficient historical tradition of banning guns in houses of worship.
  • A federal district court in Oregon dismissed negligence claims against the LDS Church, holding that church membership alone did not create a special relationship imposing a duty to protect a member from abuse occurring outside church supervision.
  • A federal district court in Maine upheld the state’s school vaccine mandate against Free Exercise and Establishment Clause challenges, holding that eliminating all personal belief exemptions did not single out religion and that the mandate does not burden the parents’ right to direct their child’s religious upbringing.
  • The Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments whether the state’s abortion ban violates the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, with plaintiffs arguing that the law burdens sincerely held religious beliefs that require religiously motivated abortions.
Posted on by L&R Forum

Legal Spirits 082: A Short Take on a Tomb in Sicily and a Never-Ending Contest

The Tomb of Frederick II in Palermo Cathedral

In this Legal Spirits Short Take, Center Director Mark Movsesian reflects on his recent visit to Sicily and the 13th-century tomb of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, and the famous Stupor Mundi—the “Wonder of the World”—in Palermo Cathedral. Medieval Sicily was a major theater in the long struggle between popes and secular rulers over the boundaries of spiritual and temporal power, a struggle that included disputes over the appointment and authority of bishops. Frederick was deeply involved in that conflict. His burial in the cathedral, after years of bitter conflict with the papacy and repeated excommunications, offers a reminder of the ambiguous line between church and state—and of a contest that never wholly ends. Listen in!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS