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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 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:

  • 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 Mark Movsesian

SMU Law Review Symposium on the Establishment Clause

I’m looking forward to participating in this upcoming online symposium the SMU Law Review will sponsor next month: Religion and Government: The Future of the Establishment Clause. Registration link available in the photo above. Friends of the Mattone Center, sign on and say hello!

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a preliminary injunction barring the city of Quincy from installing two religious statues on the façade of a new public safety building, finding there is a substantial likelihood that the installation would violate Article III of the Massachusetts Constitution.
  • Plaintiffs in New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America v. Department of Homeland Security filed a motion seeking to hold DHS in contempt for violating an injunction issued in February by a Massachusetts federal district court. The injunction barred immigration officials from enforcing a new policy that allows ICE to conduct arrests, searches, or interrogations in or near churches/other houses of worship at the agents’ own discretion.
  • The Second Circuit upheld the district court’s decision to grant summary judgment for defendants in Belya v. Kapral, finding that the church autonomy doctrine barred a former priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) from suing church leaders/entities for defamation.
  • The FBI released its 2025 Reported Crime Statistics, showing a 7% overall decrease in hate crimes in 2025 as compared to the year before.
  • A joint petition for certiorari was filed with the Supreme Court in Nathan v. Alamo Heights School District and Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District. The petitioners seek review of a Texas law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom.
  • A Maryland Jewish Center is suing Montgomery County, Maryland to enjoin enforcement of imposed Expedited Bill 23-26, which bans even licensed firearm holders from carrying a firearm within 100 yards of houses of worship and other “places of public assembly.”
Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

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

  • The Fourth Circuit ruled that Virginia may deny state scholarship funding for students pursuing vocational religious degrees, siding with the state in a challenge brought by a Liberty University student. The court held that the Supreme Court’s decision in Locke v. Davey controlled and permitted states to withhold funding for religious instruction programs. 
  • The Supreme Court allowed access to the abortion pill mifepristone by mail to remain in place while litigation continues. The decision pauses a lower court ruling that would have imposed new restrictions on the drug’s distribution. 
  • A group of federal employees sued Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, alleging that religious messages sent through official USDA emails promoted Christianity in the workplace. The lawsuit claims the emails violated the Establishment Clause by amounting to government endorsement of religion. 
  • An Iraqi court ruled in favor of a woman seeking to change her official religious designation from Islam to Christianity, a decision that could have broader implications for religious rights in the country. 
  • France’s Senate rejected an assisted-dying bill this week, as Christian and pro-life groups called on lawmakers to preserve the decision. The debate has drawn continued attention from religious organizations and renewed disputes over end-of-life legislation. 

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Mattone Center for Law and Religion & St. John’sJournal of Catholic Legal Studies Co-Host Annual Symposium

On Thursday, the Mattone Center for Law and Religion co-hosted its annual symposium with the St. John’s Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. This year’s event featured commentary by Chris Lund (Wayne State) and Eric Rassbach (Becket) on the recent Ten Commandments case from the Fifth Circuit. 

The program also included a thoughtful Q&A with the presenters and remarks from Dean Jefferson Exum of St. John’s Law. Thank you to our speakers and all who joined us for an engaging and timely discussion. 

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Legal Spirits 074: Religion and the State in Japan

Nearly eighty years after Japan adopted constitutional provisions separating religion and the state, Japanese courts continue to grapple with a question familiar to American lawyers: how to enforce separation without severing law from history, tradition, and social practice. In this episode of Legal Spirits, Mark Movsesian speaks with Professor Eiichiro Takahata of Nihon University about the Japanese Supreme Court’s church–state jurisprudence, including its adaptation of U.S. Establishment Clause doctrine and its distinctive reliance on common-sense social understandings. The conversation offers a comparative lens on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent turn away from abstract tests like Lemon and toward history and tradition—and highlights both the parallels and the limits of that convergence. Listen in!

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Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Upcoming Panel: Displaying the 10 Commandments in Public School Classrooms

Later this month, the Mattone Center will co-host its annual symposium with the St. John’s Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. This year’s panel will address Roake v. Brumley, the 5th Circuit case on the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. We’ll hear from Christopher Lund (Wayne State) and Eric Rassbach (Becket Fund). We’ll post a video of the event later.

Space is limited, but if interested, please email Center Director Mark Movsesian at mark.movsesian@stjohns.edu. Thanks!

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

New Mattone Center Video: Everson v. Board of Education

The Mattone Center has posted a new video on our YouTube channel about Everson v. Board of Education (1947), one of the Supreme Court’s landmark Establishment Clause cases. In Everson, the Court upheld a New Jersey program that reimbursed parents for transportation costs to parochial as well as public schools. Justice Black’s majority opinion famously explores several arguments about the meaning of the Establishment Clause and has influenced the Court’s jurisprudence ever since.

In our new video, we explain the facts of the case, the Court’s reasoning, and why Everson remains such a touchstone in the law of church and state.

We hope you’ll take a look—and please consider subscribing to the Center’s channel for more explainers on law-and-religion cases and issues.