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!

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Delighted to announce our Mattone Center Student Fellows for 2026-2027: Vincent D’Avanzo ’27, Marc Derrickson ’28, Anastasia Kaliabakos ’27, and Isabel Lane ’27. Fellows help produce the Forum and the Legal Spirits podcast series and assist generally with Center activities. For more about this year’s team, please see our People page.

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

• Florida officials and Catholic schools are at odds over whether schools participating in state scholarship programs must provide religious exemptions from vaccination requirements.
• Several Catholic religious orders and the Archbishop of Chicago filed a federal lawsuit challenging Illinois requirements that healthcare providers inform and counsel terminally ill patients about physician-assisted suicide, arguing that the requirements violate their religious freedom.
• Maine’s highest court upheld a ruling allowing a father to prevent his daughter from attending her mother’s church after finding that participation there was psychologically harmful to the child, rejecting the mother’s constitutional claims.
• A federal bankruptcy court allowed a Jewish religious nonprofit’s lawsuit against the City of Hollywood, Florida, to proceed after the city denied zoning approval for a proposed K-12 Jewish day school, with the nonprofit alleging violations of its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
• A South Korean court sentenced Unification Church leader Hak Ja Han to two years in prison after convicting her of bribery, violating political finance laws, and embezzling church funds.
• InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sued SUNY Broome Community College after the school denied the group official recognition because its constitution requires student leaders to affirm a statement of faith, which the college says conflicts with its nondiscrimination policy.
• Catholic leaders in Maharashtra are considering a legal challenge to a new state law regulating religious conversions, which requires advance notice of conversions and has drawn broader constitutional challenges over religious freedom.

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In this episode of Legal Spirits, Center Director Mark Movsesian speaks with Professor Arman Tatoyan of the American University of Armenia about a controversy involving the Armenian Apostolic Church and the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The dispute centers on a civil-court order requiring the Church to allow a bishop to continue serving as diocesan Primate while he challenged his removal. After the Church defrocked the bishop, authorities brought criminal charges against Catholicos Karekin II and other senior clerics for allegedly defying the order. We discuss the case under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the principle of church autonomy, and ask whether even a temporary court order—and the threat of criminal enforcement—can become a serious burden on religious freedom. We also compare the European approach with U.S. church-autonomy doctrine and consider why the controversy matters well beyond Armenia. Listen in!

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

• Parents in Georgia have filed suit challenging requirements of the state’s Promise Scholarship Program, arguing that forcing their children to attend low-performing public schools before receiving funds for Catholic education violates the Free Exercise Clause.
• A federal court allowed a Title VII religious discrimination suit against the Department of Homeland Security to proceed after Customs and Border Protection withdrew a job offer because of an applicant’s sacramental use of ayahuasca as a member of a Christian Spiritist denomination.
• The Sixth Circuit rejected a challenge to a Michigan city’s restrictions on which flags may be flown on city-owned flagpoles, while questioning whether the Establishment Clause still requires government action to have a secular purpose after the Supreme Court abandoned the Lemon test.
• A federal court allowed Establishment Clause claims to proceed against the Philadelphia School District based on allegations that officials created a Muslim prayer room, restricted access to Muslim students, and disciplined non-Muslim students for entering it.
• A Minneapolis church asked a federal judge to hold DHS in contempt, alleging immigration agents surveilled worshippers despite an injunction restricting immigration enforcement at the church.
• Iraq’s Court of Cassation ruled that a Christian woman has the right to have her religious identity officially recorded as Christian, overturning her classification as Muslim under Iraqi law.

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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.”

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In this Legal Spirits Short Take, Center Director Mark Movsesian discusses a new federal lawsuit challenging New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act. Catholic healthcare providers argue that the state’s statutory regime will require them to counsel patients about medically assisted suicide, even though their religious commitments prohibit them from participating in the practice. New York has not yet responded, and important questions remain about what the law actually requires. Assuming the plaintiffs’ account is correct, Mark considers whether the counseling obligation substantially burdens their religious exercise, whether the law’s different treatment of hospices undermines its general applicability, and whether New York could protect patient access to legal end-of-life options through less restrictive means. Listen in!

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In this Legal Spirits Short Take, Mattone Center Director Mark Movsesian discusses the recent controversy involving Congressman Dan Goldman and a Brooklyn coffee shop that reportedly said it would have refused him service because of his support for Israel. Was this illegal discrimination based on religion, or a refusal of service based on politics? What does this episode reveal about public accommodations law, political disagreement, and our penchant for turning ordinary commerce into a space for ideological conflict? Listen in!

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The Defense Department recently created a controversy by revising its list of religious affiliation codes for service members and failing to designate the LDS Church as Christian. After objections, DOD removed the Christian designation from the list altogether. In this Legal Spirits Short Take, Center Director Mark Movsesian explains how the episode reveals a deeper problem of liberalism in a religiously diverse society: government must frequently classify religion, but no classification can be completely neutral. Listen in!

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