![]() ![]() ![]() Their brief said the government has been “desecrating and destroying Native American sacred sites since before the Republic was formed. The ruling did not come as a surprise to Stephanie Barclay, director of the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Initiative, one of several groups that filed a brief this week supporting Apache Stronghold’s case. ![]() The government would either have to coerce a group into violating its beliefs or it would have to mount a targeted denial of “rights, benefits and privileges enjoyed by other citizens.” “Even where land is physically destroyed, the government action must still fall within … two narrow situations” to be considered a violation of First Amendment rights, Logan said. Logan also rejected the opponents’ claim that the federal government was infringing on their faith, despite the likely damage to Oak Flat. Logan rejected that claim, pointing to Nosie’s testimony that he had protested the project for years, including testifying to Congress “many, many times” on the project, and repeatedly filed letters and statements with officials. But in a statement posted to its website Thursday, Apache Stronghold advocates said the mine would destroy Oak Flat, leaving behind a “crater of rubble more than 1,000 feet deep and almost two miles across.” Those included claims, in sometimes tearful testimony last week, that the project violated an 1852 treaty with the Apache, that it would violate their First Amendment rights to worship and that the government violated their due process rights by rushing approval.Ĭalls seeking comment from the group and its attorneys were not immediately returned Friday. Further, Logan wrote, the group had not shown it had “a likelihood of success on, or serious questions going to, the merits of its claims.” ![]() District Judge Steven Logan rejected a request by the group Apache Stronghold for a preliminary injunction against the mine, saying the group did not have standing to challenge the project. 12, refused to order a halt to the proposed Resolution Copper Mine on Oak Flat, land that opponents say is sacred to the Apache people and will be destroyed by the mine. WASHINGTON – A federal judge Friday, Feb. ![]()
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