Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal et al. (546 U.S. 418)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 21, 2006 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 546 U.S. 418 · 126 S. Ct. 1211
- Decided
- February 21, 2006
- Term
- October Term 2005
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. A religious sect with origins in the Amazon Rainforest receives communion by drinking a sacramental tea, brewed from plants unique to the region, that contains a hallucinogen regulated under the Controlled Substances Act by the Federal Government. The Government concedes that this practice is a sincere exercise of religion, but nonetheless sought to prohibit the small American branch of the sect from engaging in the practice, on the ground that the Controlled Substances Act bars all use of the hallucinogen. The sect sued to block enforcement against it of the ban on the sacramental tea, and moved for a preliminary injunction. It relied on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the Federal Government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion, unless the Government “demonstrates that application of the burden to the person” represents the least restrictive means of advancing a compelling interest. 42 U. S. C. §2000bb-l(b). The District Court granted the preliminary injunction, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted the Government’s petition for certiorari. Before this Court, the Government’s central submission is that it has a compelling interest in the uniform application of the Controlled Substances Act, such that no exception to the ban on use of the hallucinogen can…
Excerpt of a 33,890-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.