Native American Religion Cases
On May 27, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in Apache Stronghold v. United States, 605 U.S. ____ (2025), denied certiorari to a decision from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which allowed the government to permit a mining conglomerate to turn a large portion of an Apache worship site at Oak Flat, Arizona, into
Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith
(1990) greatly changed First Amendment religious free exercise law,
abandoning the compelling interest test.
Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) said that
building a road through sacred Native American sites did not violate the
First Amendment.
Quick Bear v. Leupp (1908) ruled that expenditures from Native American
treaty trust funds for Catholic schools on reservations did not violate the
First Amendment.
