Colonial-era Church in the Granada, Nicaragua by Monge Najera (CC BY-SA3.0) Freedom of religion or belief is formally recognized in Nicaragua’s legal framework. The former Constitution of Nicaragua established that the State had no official religion and guaranteed the right to profess or not profess a religion. However, constitutional reforms adopted since 2019 and further…
Otes Manor House where John Locke spent the last fourteen years of his life via Wellcome Library, London (CC BY 4.0). John Locke insisted that toleration and a secular approach to politics would be good for religion. He argued that coerced belief results in hypocrisy and resentment, as well as belief that hinges on political…
An SB 10 compliant Poster. Photo by author. The Ten Commandments are almost certainly headed back to the Supreme Court. Over the past couple of years, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas have all passed statutes requiring the Decalogue to be posted in public school classrooms, and the federal courts are reassessing whether such a display is…
Moses and Aaron with the 10 Commandments by Aron de Chaves (PD-Art). This piece was originally published on Divided Argument, a legal blog on April 22nd, 2026. Sometimes a case is meta. Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, the Fifth Circuit’s recent Ten Commandments decision, aptly captures how deep into the wilderness our religious…
Margalla Hills in Pakistan by Zach Khan (CC BY-SA 4.0). In early April 2026, Pakistan accomplished what few states in the contemporary international system have managed: it brought the United States and Iran, two nations defined by decades of mistrust, ideological divergence, and intermittent confrontation to the same negotiating table. This was more than an…
Intercultural Conference. Photo by provided by author. The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 20(1) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Pinna’s long-form essay here.See other essays in this series here. Religion permeates every function…
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense (US-PD). On February 27, 2026, President Donald Trump launched Operation “Epic Fury.” Within a day, the United States had killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 170 people at the Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, and, alongside Israel, begun a war with Iran. From the beginning, the…
Oxford MS Pride parade. Photo by Author. On the evening of her birthday in July 2022, Stephanie Lee called the Oxford, Mississippi Police Department to request a wellness check. Her child, Jimmie “Jay” Lee, a 20-year-old public policy student at the University of Mississippi, had not called that morning as he always did. Jay was…
Tara Cathedral and the Tara salt flats, Atacama Desert, Chile by Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 20(1) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Flores’ long-form…
Florence Nightingale. Coloured lithograph. Source: Wellcome Collection (Public Domain Mark). When we think of the story of human evolution, we often focus on the dramatic, “sexy” storylines: battles for physical or social dominance, hunting large game, and finding mates. But a significant subplot in our shared human story is cooperation. Our ability to cooperate toward…