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February 21, 2006
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Hails Supreme Court
Ruling for Religious Freedom; Unanimous Opinion Written by
C.J. Roberts Requires Government to Meet Higher Burden of Proof
to Restrict Religious Practices
Today, the U.S.
Supreme Court unanimously defended religious liberty in a
critical case in which the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations joined with a broad and diverse coalition of
religious groups as “friends of the court.” In the first
religious liberty opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the
high court rejected arguments by the government that it could
not afford to grant a religious exemption from drug control laws
for a religious group’s use of an herbal tea in its ritual
practices.
The case, Gonzales v.
O Centro Espirito, involves a sect, known as Uniao Do Vegetal (UDV)
or the Union of the Plants, which preaches a brand of "Christian
spiritualism" that combines traditional Brazilian beliefs with
contemporary Christian teachings. A "central and essential"
tenet of the UDV faith is a belief that hoasca, a tea containing
the illegal hallucinogenic drug diemethyltryptamine (DMT), is
sacred and that its use connects members to God. UDV sued the
government in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
and received a preliminary injunction preventing the
confiscation of imported hoasca or the arrest of any UDV members
using the drug while the district court trial was pending.
The Court of Appeals
for the 10th Circuit upheld the injunction and the Supreme Court
ruled similarly today. UDV claimed that the 1993 Religious
Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) exempts them from any laws
prohibiting the importation and use of hoasca. RFRA states that
no federal law shall "substantially burden a person's exercise
of religion" unless the government proves the law furthers a
"compelling governmental interest" and that it has been
implemented in a way that is "least restrictive" to religious
practices. The federal government countered that the courts
cannot grant UDV an exception to the nation's drug laws — in
this case the 1970 Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which
prohibits the use of DMT for any purpose. Furthermore, the
government argued, the 1971 United Nations Convention on
Psychotropic Substances (to which the United States is a party)
required the government "to prevent and combat abuse of
[psychotropic] substances and the illicit traffic to which it
gives rise." The Court rejected all of the government’s
contentions.
The UOJCA, and its
coalition partners, filed briefs with the Supreme Court
defending RFRA and its application to this religious practice
and the Controlled Substances Act. UOJCA public policy director
Nathan J. Diament issued the following statement reacting to the
Court’s ruling:
The Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations joins with all those who cherish religious
liberty in applauding the Supreme Court’s unanimous recognition
that we are a nation of diverse faiths and that different faiths
require different accommodations for their religious practice.
Congress recognized this when it enacted RFRA with broad
bipartisan support. Thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and his
colleagues, if the United States wishes to restrict this
religious activity, it must return to court and concretely
demonstrate that its compelling interest in drug enforcement
cannot allow any exception in this kind of context. That is the
right result under our First Amendment freedoms.
For further
information, see the essay published on Beliefnet.com [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/171/story_17132.html],
in which Diament noted that this case will be the first to
reveal newly appointed Chief Justice John Roberts’ views on
religious liberty issues.
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