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Around the Web

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

  • This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in two cases challenging state laws that require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by a Jewish group seeking to recover a collection of sacred manuscripts that were seized by the Nazis and are now being held in Russia.
  • A Ukrainian Catholic Church in Pennsylvania has sued Collier Township, alleging religious discrimination after the town rejected plans for a church bell tower.
  • The European Court of Human Rights is hearing a case that seeks to remove Christian icons and symbols from public buildings in Greece.
  • The Vatican is currently evaluating the Trump Administration’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, which was established with the goal of rebuilding Gaza. 

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Legal Spirits 072: Religion at the “Constitutional Court of Europe”

In this episode, Mattone Center Director Mark Movsesian speaks with Judge Ioannis Ktistakis of the European Court of Human Rights about his career as an advocate, scholar, and international judge, and about emerging religious-freedom challenges facing Europe. They explore the role of the European Court—which Judge Ktistakis describes as “the Constitutional Court of Europe”—and examine how it supports the protection of fundamental rights across the continent. The conversation offers U.S. lawyers and law students a rare inside look at the Court’s internal workings and its approach to sensitive questions of law and religion.

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Around the Web

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

  • The Department of Homeland Security announced that it will implement a rule that eases the requirements for foreign religious workers in the United States. 
  • In the European Court of Human Rights, the judge presiding over Tafzi El Hadri and El Edriss Mouch v. Spain held that Spanish courts did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to sanction a journalist who had written about Islamist indoctrination at a residential center for minors. 
  • In Brox v. Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, the 1st Circuit ruled against employees seeking religious exemptions from a state board’s Covid vaccination policy.
  • In the United Kingdom, Catholic leaders are urging lawmakers to reject a proposed bill in Parliament that would allow for doctor-assisted suicides. 
  • As political protests and unrest grow in Iran, Christians in Iran report increasing anxiety about their vulnerable status.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Pin on Human Dignity

Very happy to announce the publication this month of Andrea Pin’s latest book, Dignity in Judgment: Constitutional Adjudication in Comparative Perspective (Oxford). Andrea is a Full Professor at Padua and one of the world’s leading scholars in comparative constitutional law–as well as a friend of the Mattone Center and frequent participant in our program. Always worth reading!

Here is the description from the Oxford website:

Dignity is a complex philosophical, theological, and constitutional concept. Courts have often progressively distanced the notion of dignity in constitutional law from its religious connotation to emphasize individual autonomy and self-determination. This process has made the notion of dignity less ambiguous, but narrower and more controversial.

Dignity in Judgment: Constitutional Adjudication in Comparative Perspective compares how the apex courts of Canada, Colombia, Egypt, the EU, and Israel operationalize the concept of dignity in their case law. While these countries share an Abrahamic faith and secularization tendencies, these legal systems host a plurality of societal values, and their courts have the reputation of having an activist approach to adjudication. This book offers an in depth-analysis of key decisions that reflect or use the concept of dignity, including capital punishment, antiterrorism measures, biotechnologies, and same-sex relations to build a model of human dignity that facilitates mutual understandings among and within legal traditions. It shows how religious and secular understandings of dignity have shaped its interpretation through the decades.

Insightful and thought-provoking, Dignity in Judgment explores the concept of dignity as it appears in the law by uncovering its character across different legal cultures and religious contexts.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

November Events at the Mattone Center

The Mattone Center is celebrating 15 years of leadership in law and religion studies. Here’s an article highlighting a rich slate of center events at the law school this past month, including a two-day international conference, a distinguished guest from the European Court of Human Rights, and a dynamic student reading group exploring C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity.”

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Religious Liberty Writing Competition for Students

The J. Reuben Clark Law Society is hosting a Religious Liberty writing competition for law students in the United States. The competition provides an opportunity for second and third year law students to write scholarly papers on the topic of religious liberty under the United States Constitution. The submission deadline is January 31, 2026, and selection will take place by the middle of March. Details below:

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Around the Web

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

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against the state’s Higher Education Board claiming that the state’s work-study program’s requirement that work be provided in ‘nonsectarian activities’, violates the Free Exercise clause. 
  • The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by a Christian school that argued that its free speech rights were violated when it was barred from playing a prayer over the loudspeaker at a football game. 
  • In Pritchard v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, the 9th Circuit remanded a suit alleging that Blue Cross is liable under the anti-discrimination portion of the Affordable Care Act for enforcing a religious-based exclusion regarding coverage of gender dysphoria. 
  • The New York Times reports on a surge of interest among younger Americans, especially young men, in Orthodox Christianity.  
  • In Jeanpierre v. Trump, a Utah district court dismissed a lawsuit by the founder of Black Flag, a religious organization, claiming that the President’s Executive order infringed his Free Exercise rights. 
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Around the Web

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

  • The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to reconsider its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage. 
  • The Satanic Temple has been denied the opportunity to amend its Idaho abortion ban lawsuit.
  • The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement addressing their concern for the evolving situation impacting migrants in the United States.
  • The Supreme Court heard arguments in a religious rights case involving a Rastafarian man who is trying to sue Louisiana prison officials after they forcibly shaved his dreadlocks.
  • U.S. bishops announced this week that Catholic hospitals in the United States are expressly prohibited from performing transgender-related surgeries on individuals who identify as the opposite sex.
  • Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Elpidophoros became a naturalized U.S. citizen on November 10.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Mattone Center Hosts ECtHR Judge

The Mattone Center was delighted to host Judge Ioannis Ktistakis of the European Court of Human Rights for lunch with St. John’s Law students this week. Judge Ktistakis, who was at the law school for a conference on state neutrality and religious freedom, spoke with the students about his legal career, the work of the European Court, and current issues in religious freedom in Europe. Thanks to the judge for joining us!

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Around the Web

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

  • The Supreme Court of the United States is set to consider a petition in Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections regarding a Rastafarian inmate’s religious liberty claims after prison officials forcibly shaved his dreadlocks.  
  • The Supreme Court is reviewing a petition by former Kentucky government official Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds, seeking to overturn or limit Obergefell v. Hodges and assert free-exercise protections for public officials. 
  • In January, the 5th Circuit is set to hear arguments about state laws in Texas and Louisiana requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.  
  • A federal district court in Connecticut has ruled against a public school teacher who requested a preliminary injunction from the court after she was barred from displaying a crucifix on her classroom wall.  
  • The United States has designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” citing severe violations of religious freedom in the nation.  
  • Pope Leo stated that the United States must respect the “spiritual rights” of detained migrants, suggesting that authorities allow pastoral workers to attend to their needs.