GONZALES v. O CENTRO ESPIRITA BENEFICENTE UNIAO DO VEGETAL

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether the federal government could prohibit a religious group from using a Schedule I psychoactive substance under the Controlled Substances Act, despite the protections provided by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

Action

Affirmed (includes modified). Petitioning party did not receive a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

A religious organization with origins in the Amazon Rainforest receives communion by drinking the sacramental tea hoasca, brewed from plants unique to the region that contains DMT, a hallucinogen regulated under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. 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. After U. S. Customs inspectors seized a hoasca shipment and threatened prosecution, the sect sued to block enforcement against it of the ban on the sacramental tea, and moved for a preliminary injunction.

The religious organization 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. The District Court granted the preliminary injunction, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed.