Case Summary
Issue:
Whether the use of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 to bar an otherwise legal use of a national forest violates the Establishment Clause when it endorses the “religious orthodoxy” of some American Indian religious practitioners that certain federal land is sacred?
Plaintiff:
Navajo Nation; Havasupai Tribe; Rex Tilousi; Dianna Uqualla; Sierra Club; White Mountain Apache Nation; Yavapai-Apache Nation; The Flagstaff Activist Network; Hualapai Tribe; Norris Nez; Bill Bucky Preston; Hopi Tribe; Center for Biological Diversity
Defendant:
United States Forest Service; Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure; Regional Forester Corbin Newman
Intervenor:
Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership (defendant-intervenor-appellee)
Amicus Curiae:
Mountain States Legal Foundation (Ninth Circuit)
Plaintiff:
Navajo Nation; Havasupai Tribe; Rex Tilousi; Dianna Uqualla; Sierra Club; White Mountain Apache Nation; Yavapai-Apache Nation; The Flagstaff Activist Network; Hualapai Tribe; Norris Nez; Bill Bucky Preston; Hopi Tribe; Center for Biological Diversity
Defendant:
United States Forest Service; Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure; Regional Forester Corbin Newman
Intervenor:
Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership (defendant-intervenor-appellee)
Amicus Curiae:
Mountain States Legal Foundation (Ninth Circuit)
Join the Fight
Since 1977, MSLF has fought to protect private property rights, individual liberties, and economic freedom. MSLF is a nonprofit public interest legal foundation. We represent clients pro bono and receive no government funding. Make your 100% tax deductible contribution today and join the fight.
Case History
History:
The Arizona Snowbowl is a ski area on Humphrey’s Peak, near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, where there has been organized skiing since 1938. A 1979 Forest Service plan to expand the ski area was challenged by Navajo medicine men and the Hopi Tribe but was upheld in 1983. In September 2002, Snowbowl proposed a plan, adopted by the Forest Service in February 2005, to improve skiing at the resort. In addition to expanding and upgrading the skiing terrain and facilities, Snowbowl proposed to extend the ski season by making artificial snow using treated sewage effluent purchased from the City of Flagstaff.
Contending that use of such water desecrated the religious sites of American Indian religious practitioners, several Indian Tribes, individual Indians, and environmental groups sued the Forest Service for approving Snowbowl’s expansion and use of recycled effluent. An Arizona federal district court upheld the Forest Service’s decision; however, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed holding that the Forest Service plan violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. On October 17, 2007, the Ninth Circuit agreed to rehear the case en banc.
On November 7, 2007, MSLF filed a friend of the court brief in support of the Forest Service and Arizona Snowbowl Resort. Oral argument was held on December 11, 2007. On August 8, 2008, the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, overturned the ruling of the Court’s three-judge panel and upheld the decision of the U.S. Forest Service permitting Arizona Snowbowl to make snow using recycled wastewater.
On January 5, 2009, the Navajo Nation filed a petition for writ of certiorari.
