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 Kyle Nazareth cover three stories. First, a surprising amicus brief from professors affiliated with the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic. The brief supports the ACLU-led petition asking the Supreme Court to reverse the en banc Fifth Circuit’s decision in Nathan v. Alamo Heights, which upheld Texas’s law requiring the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. Second, a Christian man who was escorted out of the Winter Haven Festival of Lights in Tucson, Arizona, and threatened with arrest for quietly asking attendees if they wanted to talk about Jesus. Police told him this counted as prohibited “sermonizing,” and he is now suing the city with First Liberty Institute. Third, a federal bankruptcy court’s rejection of the Diocese of Oakland’s reorganization plan, and the diocese’s novel argument that pressuring it to sell more churches to pay creditors raises a church autonomy problem.

Chapter markers

0:00 Intro
1:24 The Texas Ten Commandments case, Nathan v. Alamo Heights
1:52 Judge Duncan’s en banc opinion and the hallmarks of a religious establishment
3:28 The case awaits a decision on Supreme Court review
3:38 A Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic brief backing the ACLU’s petition
4:19 A real split within the religious freedom movement
5:05 The brief’s claim: Texas forces religious instruction on a captive audience
7:04 Frank: the founders feared denominational dominance, not the Bible
8:29 Early American public schools, the King James Bible, and the Our Father
9:08 No coercion and no instruction: it’s a poster on the wall
10:13 Andrea Picciotti-Bayer: students don’t even have to look at it
10:52 Why Frank now hopes the Supreme Court takes the case
11:07 Kyle: the offended observer problem in new language
12:15 Stone v. Graham, the Lemon test, and psychology as a test for coercion
12:44 A Tucson holiday festival bans religious messaging
13:10 The festival sign and the barricaded “free expression zone”
13:38 Police: asking about Jesus is “sermonizing”
14:12 Hoffman sues, represented by First Liberty Institute and Gibson Dunn
14:42 Is a private festival on a city permit state action?
15:21 Is evangelizing protected speech? Kennedy v. Bremerton and Murdock v. Pennsylvania
16:19 Traditional public forum doctrine: intermediate scrutiny versus strict scrutiny
17:09 Why the festival’s rule is content-based
18:01 Crowd safety, pedestrian flow, and the heckler’s veto under Cohen v. California
19:22 Party bikes allowed, quiet conversations banned: why the rule isn’t narrowly tailored
20:24 Less restrictive alternatives the city could have used
21:08 Kyle: a winter holiday festival that banned Christ, and Paul in the marketplace in Acts 17
22:11 The myth of neutrality: treating the gospel like a sales pitch
23:21 Frank: lumping the most protected speech with the least protected speech
24:09 Private permits on public streets
25:22 An open invitation to lawyers who work on public forum issues
26:23 The Diocese of Oakland’s bankruptcy
27:52 Why the court rejected the reorganization plan
29:27 The diocese’s church autonomy argument
30:44 The court’s response
31:19 Frank: the court answered a free exercise question, not a church autonomy one
32:26 What if a court’s demands would leave Catholics without a parish?
33:38 Wrap-up

Lawyers: applications for the Good Counselor Project, Napa Legal’s fellowship for Christian attorneys, are open until December 1. Learn more at https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

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, October 20, 2026

#religiousliberty #freespeech #freedomofreligion

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 is joined by Alexa Kowalewski, a recent graduate of Notre Dame Law School. They cover three stories. First, a North Carolina town that is using its zoning code to evict a small church from a rented event space where theaters, wedding venues, and bars are all permitted. Second, a lawsuit by two Christian student groups at Virginia State University, which stripped Christian organizations of their independent status, placed them under a single campus minister, and exempted Muslim and other non-Christian groups. Third, an update on California’s lawsuit against Heartbeat International, in which the state is seeking more than $20 million in penalties and a gag order that would bar pro-life pregnancy centers from even telling women about abortion pill reversal.

Chapter markers

0:00 Intro

1:50 A North Carolina town tells a church to stop meeting

3:25 First Liberty responds to the demand letter

4:51 RLUIPA land use fights and the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist case

5:48 Why the ordinance isn’t neutral or generally applicable under Employment Division v. Smith

7:41 RLUIPA’s equal terms problem: only 2 of 14 zoning districts allow churches

8:35 Why local zoning fights must be fought early

9:55 Alexa: describe the same facts without the word “church”

12:41 Virginia State University’s new campus ministry policy

13:38 Christian groups lose their registered student organization status

15:34 The exemption for Muslim and non-Christian groups

17:01 The campus minister’s explanation and the end of Sunday church shuttles

18:08 Frank: campus ministries versus more orthodox outside groups

20:05 Establishment Clause or Free Exercise? Lemon, Kennedy, and the better claim

21:30 Heartbeat International and the Abortion Pill Rescue Network

23:22 New Beginnings: abortion pill reversal in rural Arkansas

25:46 California seeks $20 million and a gag order

27:07 How abortion pill reversal works

28:32 Why consumer protection law doesn’t fit nonprofits

29:28 Progesterone versus mifepristone safety

31:20 The chilling effect on pregnancy centers and the Thomas More Society’s defense

32:53 Alexa: the pro-choice movement’s limits on choice

34:42 Wrap-up

Lawyers: applications for the Good Counselor Project, Napa Legal’s fellowship for Christian attorneys, are open until December 1. Learn more at https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

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/th...

The Napa Legal Podcast, October 13, 2026

#religiousliberty #prolife #freedomofreligion

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 Kyle Nazareth discuss a North Carolina elementary school that refused to let Christian parents opt their children out of a music class taught by a male teacher who identifies as a woman; the Ninth Circuit's full-court rehearing of Union Gospel Mission of Yakima v. Brown, a case asking whether Christian ministries can require all employees, not just ministers, to share their faith; and the Supreme Court's decision to hear Missionaries of St. John the Baptist v. Frederick, a Kentucky case over a zoning board blocking a Marian grotto on church property, in which Napa Legal filed an amicus brief urging the Court to take the case.

Lawyers: applications for the Good Counselor Project, Napa Legal's fellowship for Christian attorneys, are open until December 1. Learn more at https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

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

The Napa Legal Podcast, October 6, 2026

#religiousliberty #parentalrights #freedomofreligion

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 Kyle Nazareth discuss Senator Josh Hawley's new Declaration for Life and his bill to ban the abortion pill mifepristone; a lawsuit by Catholic journalist Margot Cleveland accusing the city of Dearborn, Michigan, of favoring Islam over Christianity and Judaism; and oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court in Hoosier Jews for Choice, a case claiming that abortion is a protected religious exercise.

In this episode, we discuss:

[1:26] Senator Hawley's Declaration for Life, unveiled at the inaugural Missouri Prayer Breakfast, and his Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, which would ban the sale and shipment of mifepristone. Frank explains why the bill focuses on harm to women rather than harm to the unborn child.

[10:45] Cleveland v. City of Dearborn, in which a Dearborn resident alleges the city spent public funds on Ramadan banners and displays while ignoring her requests for comparable recognition of Christmas, Easter, and the Jewish High Holy Days. Kyle walks through the complaint's free speech retaliation and Establishment Clause claims.

[24:06] Hoosier Jews for Choice v. Indiana, in which Jewish, Muslim, and other plaintiffs argue that Indiana's abortion law violates their rights under the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Frank explains why the Indiana Supreme Court may decide the case on standing, and why neither the original meaning of "religion" nor strict scrutiny supports a religious right to end an unborn life.

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

The Napa Legal Podcast, September 29, 2026

#religiousliberty #freedomofreligion #prolife

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discussreligious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits.

In this week's episode, Frank DeVito and Kyle Nazarethdiscuss Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington's letter, read at every Mass inhis diocese, urging Catholics to vote no on Virginia's proposed abortion andmarriage amendments; a federal injunction protecting Cardinal Blase Cupich, theArchdiocese of Chicago, and two orders of Catholic sisters from Illinois'sassisted suicide referral mandate; and a Massachusetts case in which Catholicparents allege the state took custody of their 15-year-old daughter after theyrefused, on religious grounds, to affirm her as a boy.

In this episode, we discuss:

[1:00] Bishop Burbidge's letter urging Catholics to vote noon two Virginia ballot amendments this November, one expanding abortion accessand one redefining marriage. Frank uses the letter as a chance to walk throughwhat Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

[13:06] Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v.Pritzker, in which a federal judge temporarily barred Illinois from enforcingits End of Life Options Act against the Archdiocese of Chicago and the sisters.Kyle walks through the Becket Fund's church autonomy argument and the Catholicmoral theology at the heart of the complaint.

[30:18] The Massachusetts family who say the Department ofChildren and Families removed their daughter from their home two years agoafter a school counselor reported them for objecting to her social transition.Drawing on his experience as a solicitor for a children and youth agency, Frankexplains how Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court's decision on secret schoolgender transitions, bears on the case.

For more about Napa Legal and our work, visit our websitehere: https://www.napalegalinstitute.org/

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

The Napa Legal Podcast, September 22, 2026

#freedomofreligion #religiousliberty #parentalrights

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 Kyle Nazareth discuss a Washington State father who sued his son's school district after his fourth grader sat through a Pride Month lesson on gender reassignment surgery with no notice and no chance to opt out; the Becket Fund's amicus brief in Grand v. City of University Heights, the Supreme Court case of an Orthodox Jewish man told he could not gather ten men to pray in his own living room without a zoning permit; and the New Jersey Catholic Conference's guidance to Catholics following the state's sweeping new abortion law.

In this episode, we discuss:

[1:05] A new lawsuit against the Lake Washington School District in Washington State. Frank explains why this case is one of the first real tests of Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court decision holding that parents are constitutionally entitled to notice and an opt-out when a curricular feature substantially interferes with the religious development of a child, and why the fight over whether a lesson is merely descriptive or actually normative is the wrong place for courts to draw the line.

[12:40] The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's amicus brief in Grand v. City of University Heights, which the Supreme Court will hear this December. Kyle walks through Becket's argument that importing the finality rule from Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank, a Fifth Amendment takings case, into religious land use litigation hands local governments a playbook for postponing federal review indefinitely, and Becket's comparison of religious claimants trapped in zoning proceedings to the souls in Dante's Purgatory, only without the assurance of a happy ending.

[32:28] New Jersey's newly signed law expanding abortion access, which criminalizes interference with abortion and shields providers from losing their medical licenses or their malpractice insurance for performing what the statute calls reproductive health care. Frank and Kyle look at the New Jersey Catholic Conference's guidance on how Catholics should continue praying and offering literature outside abortion facilities.

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

The Napa Legal Podcast, September 15, 2026

#freedomofreligion #religiousliberty #freeexercise

Welcome to the Napa Legal Podcast, where we discuss religious liberty from the perspective of faith-based nonprofits.

In this guest episode, Napa Legal's Senior Counsel Frank DeVito is joined by Clare Anne Ath, co-founder and president of Vita et Terra, a Catholic apostolate launched this year to advocate for care for creation. Join them for a discussion of three recent developments in state abortion law. Together they examine what these laws mean for parental consent, for sidewalk counselors and pro-life advocates, and for the free speech and free exercise protections that faith-based organizations depend on.

In this episode, we discuss:

0:00 Introduction

0:45 Clare's background and the launch of Vita et Terra

2:12 Why care for creation has been ceded to the political left

3:03 People as stewards, not problems

4:26 Building Catholic formation materials on creation care

5:09 Turning to the life issue

6:14 Massachusetts signs abortion without limits into law

6:33 "An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care" and the language of abortion policy

7:29 What third-trimester abortion actually involves

8:32 Why blue states are pushing further after Dobbs

9:45 Ten states and Washington, DC with no restrictions at all

10:31 Abortion pills in the mail and the Comstock Act

12:29 A Catholic governor and the question of scandal

13:03 Abolitionist and incrementalist approaches to ending abortion

16:17 Why the United States has no reliable abortion reporting data

17:58 Virginia's ballot amendment this November

18:34 How "every individual" would erase parental consent

20:18 A 17-year-old, a bus to New Jersey, and a call to her mother

22:41 Chemical abortion risks and what parents are not told

24:55 Abortion inside the Church

25:50 New Jersey criminalizes "interference" with abortion

26:36 The FACE Act and the prosecution of sidewalk counselors

29:28 Buffer zones, the First Amendment, and the comparison to the UK

33:29 Defunding Planned Parenthood

35:10 Conclusion

Learn more about Clare's work at https://www.vitaetterra.org/ and follow her on X at @clareanneath

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/th...

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 Kyle Nazareth discuss a new DOJ report showing that FBI work on the rescinded Richmond memo continued after headquarters ordered it stopped, including surveillance of two Catholic priests; Johnson v. Fleming, a petition asking the Supreme Court to revisit Locke v. Davey after Virginia denied tuition grants to Liberty University students whose degrees were deemed too religious; and a Minnesota county whose online-only permitting process left Amish residents facing fines and arrest warrants.

In this episode, we discuss:

[1:45] The continuing saga of the FBI's 2023 Richmond memo, which tied traditionalist Catholics to violent extremism and pointed agents toward SPLC-designated "hate groups."

[16:05] Johnson v. Fleming, now on a petition to the Supreme Court. Two Liberty University undergraduates pursuing degrees in pastoral leadership and in music and worship challenge Virginia's tuition assistance grant program, which excludes religious training and theological education, while a master of divinity student headed for military chaplaincy challenges the National Guard's tuition program, which excludes theological degrees outright.

[33:45] A Minnesota county moved its zoning and permitting applications entirely online, leaving the Amish, who do not use the internet, with no way to apply, and then piled on civil fines, arrest warrants, and reportedly jail.

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

The Napa Legal Podcast, September 9, 2026

#freedomofreligion #religiousliberty #freeexercise