A Native American group working to stop the destruction of a centuries-old religious ritual site in Arizona lost a last-ditch appeal to the US Supreme Court this week to halt the transfer and destruction of the land.
In an unsigned order on October 6 the Supreme Court said Apache Stronghold's petition for a rehearing was denied. The National Catholic Register reports that the court did not give a reason for the denial.
Justice Neil Gorsuch would have granted the request, the order noted. Justice Samuel Alito, meanwhile, "took no part in the consideration or decision" of the order.
The denial likely spells the end of the Apache group's attempts to halt the destruction of Oak Flat, which has been a sacred site for Apaches and other Native American groups for centuries and has been used extensively for religious rituals.
The United States government is selling the land to the multinational Resolution Copper company, which plans to destroy the site as part of a mining operation.
The Apache coalition had brought the lawsuit to the Supreme Court this year under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing the sale of the site would violate the decades-old federal statute restricting the government's ability to encroach on religious liberty.
In May the high court refused to hear the case. Justice Gorsuch dissented from that decision as well, arguing the court "should at least have troubled itself to hear [the] case" before "allowing the government to destroy the Apaches' sacred site".
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the May ruling as well, though he did not add his dissent to the denial of the appeal on Monday.
Apache Stronghold said that while the decision was "deeply disappointing, the fight to protect Oak Flat is far from over".
In a statement issued after the ruling, the group vowed to "continue pressing our cases in the lower courts".
"Oak Flat deserves the same respect and protection this country has long given to other places of worship," the group said.
Apache Stronghold has garnered support from major Catholic backers in its religious liberty bid.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops joined an amicus brief last year arguing that lower court decisions allowing the sale of Oak Flat represent "a grave misunderstanding" of religious freedom law.
The Knights of Columbus also filed a brief in support of the Apaches, arguing the decision to allow the property to be mined applies an "atextual constraint" to the federal religious freedom law with "no grounding in the statute itself".
Though Apache Stronghold appears to have exhausted its legal options, the National Catholic Register reports the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said on August 18 that the Oak Flat site would not be transferred to Resolution Copper amid emergency petitions from the San Carlos Apache Tribe as well as the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. That dispute is ongoing in the federal court
