According to a recent study, since John Roberts became chief justice the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of religious-liberty advocates in 81 percent of the cases it has heard—compared to a rate of about of 50 percent since the 1950s. The shift has much to do with the presence of such justices as Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, who have an expansive view of First Amendment guarantees, but is not due to them alone, as Kelsey Dallas explains:

In nine of the thirteen cases counted as Roberts-era wins for religious freedom in the study, liberals joined with conservatives in either a seven-to-two or unanimous decision. . . . “The new conservative majority is essential to the high-profile cases, but not to all the others,” said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and religious studies at the University of Virginia. . . . For the most part, liberal justices only peel away en masse from their conservative colleagues when religious freedom is in tension with another important human right, he said.

Richard Garnett, director of the program on church, state, and society at the University of Notre Dame, [noted that, as] recently as last year, two liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, joined with conservatives to rule in favor of two Catholic schools wanting to sidestep employment nondiscrimination law. . . . Kagan and Breyer . . . both fall in the top half of the study’s list of the most pro-religion justices to serve since 1953. Kagan is just a few spots behind her conservative colleagues.

One thing that has changed is that recent cases are more likely to involve Christian challenges to legislation and regulation, whereas previously such litigation was domain of religious minorities. But Dallas cautions against overstating the shift:

What’s often forgotten is that Christian victories at the Supreme Court benefit more than just Christians, Garnett said. In the context of free-exercise cases in particular, precedents set by the Roberts court make it easier for members of any faith group to live out their beliefs. . . . And, despite the publicity that surrounds their lawsuits, Christians are still less likely than people of other faiths to be involved in religious-freedom battles if you look at the legal system as a whole.

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.