Cert Petition Asks: Does Spraying Recycled Sewage Water On A Sacred Mountain "Substantially Burden" Religious Exercise?

Thanks to SCOTUSblog for posting the cert petition, filed on January 5, 2008, in Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service, No. 08A368.

The petition seeks review of an en banc Ninth Circuit panel decision holding it was not a "substantial burden" on the religious exercises of Native American tribes for the Forest Service to allow a ski resort to make artificial snow on a mountain considered by the tribes to be sacred. The artificial snow is made from recycled sewage water. 

The Ninth Circuit held the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal statute which requires the government to justify with compelling reasons actions which substantially burden religious exercises, does not apply.  The court held that religious exercises are only burdened under the RFRA only when a person is forced to choose between adhering to their religion and accepting a government benefit, or when civil or criminal penalties are threatened.  Since the snowmaking activities did neither, the court held there was no violation of the RFRA.  Download the petition here.