In The Supreme Court Of The United States; Richard E. Lyng, Secretary Of Agriculture v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association

In The Supreme Court Of The United States; Richard E. Lyng, Secretary Of Agriculture v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association

NO 86-1013 Brief For The Petitioners

This case concerns the limitations imposed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment upon the federal government's authority to manage the public lands. Specifically at issue is an area of approximately 25 square miles in the Six Rivers National Forest in northwestern California. This area is located in the northern section of the forest between the Smith and Klamath Rivers.

Humboldt State Special Collections

10/1987

21.59cm x 27.94cm

English

50 Pages

Question Presented: Whether the government's decision to reconstruct the final six-mile segment of a 55-mile road located in a portion of a national forest that has religious significance for members of three Indian Tribes and its decision to permit logging within that same area of the forest violate the Tribe members' rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

According to the Indians' beliefs, the religious nature of a particular site rests upon more than the physical characteristics of the immediate surroundings. "The quali­ty of silence, the aesthetic perspective, and the physical at­tributes, are an extension of the sacredness of that par­ticular site" (J.A. 148). Accordingly, "successful use of the high country is dependent upon and facilitated by certain qualities of the physical environment, the most important of which are privacy, silence and an undisturbed natural setting." Emotional and spiritual exchange with the creator "is made possible by the solitude, quietness, and pristine environment found in the high country."

Pg. 1 Opinions & Jurisdictions
Pg. 2 Constitutional Provisions Involved & Statements
Pg. 15 Summary of Arguments
Pg. 43 Conclusions

Paper