Several lessons from the Ninth Circuit's opinion in Oklevueha Native American Church of Hawaii, Inc. v. Holder, No. 10-17687 (Apr. 9, 2012), a case involving the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act:
- Do not send your weed via FedEx.
- Especially a pound of weed.
- Even if you claim the weed is used for religious purposes.
- Especially when your church "only exists to espouse the virtues of, and to consume, entheogens."
- If you do, and FexEx narcs you out to the feds (you do know what the "Fed" part of "FedEx" is short for?), don't expect the feds to give your weed back, dude.
- Bogarting your weed does not violate the RFRA, which does not provide for money damages either, man. It's like sovereign immunity has not been waived.
- Consider yourself lucky the feds didn't charge you with a crime, even though they might in the future.
At least now we know what was in that package Tom Hanks returned in Cast Away. We can only be thankful the plaintiffs did not raise a Fifth Amendment Takings claim.
