Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this week's episode, Frank DeVito and Joseph Clement explain new legal and policy updates involving public schools that treat students as the opposite sex while lying to parents, women’s sports at the U.S. Supreme Court, and pro-life legislation.

In this episode, we discuss:

1:43 An emergency appeal in a lawsuit against California's parental exclusion policy that instructs school staff to lie to parents about their interactions with students who struggle with gender dysphoria

17:27 Recent oral arguments in a set of cases before the US Supreme Court over state laws that ban men from competing in women's sports

31:37 Two pro-life laws currently working through the New Hampshire Legislature that protect parental and medical conscience rights

For more about Napa Legal and our work, visit our website here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org

For more of the Napa Legal podcast, visit our site here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

Topics: Public schools, free exercise, First Amendment, Bonta v. Mirabelli, Little v. Hecox, West Virginia v. BPJ, pro-life.

The Napa Legal Podcast, January 19 2026.

#parentalrights #prolifemovement #legalnews

In this episode of the Napa Legal Podcast, we’re joined by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer to examine religious liberty, the First Amendment, and the role of faith-based nonprofits in American society today. We discuss why religious individuals and organizations must be free from government coercion to carry out their missions, and how protecting religious liberty benefits civil society and the most vulnerable among us.

Key Moments:

• 0:50 Introduction and Andrea's work and background with the Conscience Project
• 7:10 The inclusion of religion in public life and freedom from government coercion today
• 12:08 Inclusion by exclusion: when poor policy hurts the most vulnerable
• 15:40 The importance of stories and using faith to motivate heroism
• 19:26 Originalism, the First Amendment, and the Founders' vision of religious liberty in education
• 26:25 Responding to critics of protecting religious liberty
• 31:05 What to watch for in the coming years

Cases Discussed

- Trinity Lutheran v. Columbia- Carson v. Makin- Fulton v. City of Philadelphia- Kennedy v. Bremerton- Lemon v. Kurtzman- Dier v. Landry

Key Quotation from Andrea: "Faith is not an intruder in public life; it’s a part of our civic DNA."

For more of the Napa Legal Podcast, visit our website here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

To learn more about Napa Legal and our work, visit us at our website:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org

The Napa Legal Podcast, January 15, 2026

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this week's episode, Frank DeVito and Joseph Clement discuss the following updates:

1:35 The 9th Circuit's novel expansion of the Church Autonomy Doctrine to provide greater protection for religious organizations when making hiring decisions;

19:18 A case currently pending before the Supreme Court that could clarify when/how individuals whose First Amendment rights have been violated by the government can go to court;

29:32 The Wyoming Supreme Court's recent ruling against the state's abortion bans and how it fails both the state's and natural laws.

For more of the Napa Legal Podcast, visit our website here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

For more about Napa Legal and our work, visit out site here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

Topics:

- Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses

- Freedom of Religion

- Section 1983

- Abortion and abortion pill bans

- Is Abortion Healthcare?

The Napa Legal Podcast, January 12, 2025

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this week's episode, Frank DeVito and Joseph Clement discuss the follow updates:

1:38 The latest ruling against Planned Parenthood's attempt to force Congress to provide the nation's largest abortion provider with taxpayer dollars;

12:31 The reinstatement of the Department of Veterans' Affairs near-total abortion ban;

21:41 Religious discrimination in federal rural development projects.

Topics Covered

• Planned Parenthood
• Big Beautiful Bill
• Medicaid Funding
• The Fiction of Medically Necessary Abortions
• Rural Development Projects
• The Economic and Civic Impact of Small Town Churches

To learn more about our work, visit our website at: https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

For more of the Napa Legal Podcast, visit our site at:https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

The Napa Legal Podcast, January 6, 2026

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits! In this episode, Frank DeVito and Joseph Clement discuss the origins, mission, and identity of Napa Legal, and explain why the government must protect the free exercise of religion and the freedom of individuals and institutions to seek and worship God.

Drawing from Catholic social teaching, natural law, and American history, they examine:

- Humanity’s telos and human nature

- The Catholic understanding of religious liberty

- The history of nonprofits and freely made civil associations in America

- How Napa Legal supports religious organizations and faith-based nonprofits through legal education

This episode connects theology, philosophy, and law, explaining how religious liberty sustains a free society and why protecting faith-based nonprofits is essential to American civic life.

To learn more about Napa Legal and our work, visit our website here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

For more of the Napa Legal Podcast, visit our site here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

Key Topics: natural law, teleology, human nature, Dignitas Humanae, Pope Saint Paul the Sixth (PVI), freedom of association, free exercise of religion, Alexis de Tocqueville, religious liberty litigation, corporate governance, legal education, legal compliance, regulatory requirements, 501(c)(3) status, religious organizations, American law and history.

The Napa Legal Podcast, December 23, 2025.

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this special guest episode, Frank DeVito sits down with Chris Motz, the Senior Counsel at First Liberty and former Marine infantry officer and current part time judge advocate in the Air Force reserve component.

They discuss religious liberty in the US military, especially in the light of recent contract cancellations for support staff of Catholic chaplains. Chris and Frank explain the history of the chaplaincy, current practices and opportunities for religious servicemembers, the need for greater support for Catholic chaplains and soldiers, and more!

To watch more of the Napa Legal Podcast, visit our website here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/the-napa-legal-podcast

To learn more about Napa Legal and our work, visit our site here:

https://www.napalegalinstitute.org

Read Chris' piece on Army cuts for chaplains here:

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5628554-catholic-chaplains-face-army-cuts/

Topics: US Military, free exercise, Fr. Emil Kapaun, Fr. Vincent Capodanno, Father O’Callahan.

The Napa Legal Podcast, December 18, 2025

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this episode, Frank DeVito and Joseph Clement discuss the following updates:

1:40 A recent victory in court for a group of pro-life sidewalk counsellors in Florida who were prevented from carrying out their ministry;

15:25 A Minnesota court's recent decision that protected the rights of a Catholic school to hire according to its faith;

28:20 Criticism that the US Army has faced for cutting back key support roles for religious servicemembers and their families.

Topics: First Amendment, abortion clinics, buffer zone laws, Florida Preborn Resuce, ministerial exception, Church Autonomy Doctrine, Army chaplains, religious freedom, American constitutional rights.

The Napa Legal Podcast, December 16, 2025

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits. In this special guest episode, Frank DeVito is joined by Jason Bedrick, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy.

They discuss the Phoenix Declaration, a set of principles and truths designed for school boards and education systems in America. The principles can revolutionize a broken school system in the United States to better serve our nation's youth and foster virtue and academic excellence from a young age while ensuring that the rights of parents are respected.

The Napa Legal Podcast, December 11, 2025

Topics: Moral objectivity, the pitfalls of relativism, academic excellence, public schools, parental choice and responsibility, cultural transmission, school choice policy, education and religious liberty.

Read the rest of the Phoenix Declaration here:

https://www.heritage.org/phoenix-declaration