Religious Freedom Restoration Act Under Attack by Standing Deer, Native American Political Prisoner and Spiritual Activist

STANDING DEER

Native American Political Prisoner and Spiritual Activist

Religious Freedom Restoration Act Under Attack

graphic with flag and prison There could be more bad news lurking on the horizon for our Indian religion. We, in the iron houses, have made a lot of advances in practicing our religion due to the legislation signed into law by President Clinton in September of '93. The law is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and it is because of this legislation that Oklahoma prisons backed off their so-called "grooming Code" that had them beating up Indian prisoners who refused to cut their hair on religious grounds. The guards would knock us down, chain us up, and shave our heads. But the RFRA caused them to cancel their grooming code altogether, and now the sacred Pipe comes in the prison, and things are much better for the brothers in McAlester Prison. This is just one example of the help the bill brought inside these spiritual waste baskets called prisons.

The law does much more than protecting prisoners' religious rights. It protects religious sites, and gives our religion the same rights as the religions of the dominant culture. Indians from all over the country worked hard to get this law passed, and it was a great victory when the bill was passed. I remember how the reactionaries in Congress tried hard to keep Indian prisoners from being covered by the RFRA, but the People lobbied even harder and overrode the reaction. But now it looks like our success might be wiped out as has happened to us so often throughout our history.

On October 15, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, City of Bourne v. Flores & US to determine whether Congress exceeded its authority when it created the RFRA.

Bourne is a little town in Texas about 80 miles southwest of Austin. The case arose because the St. Peter Catholic Church asked the city for a permit to increase its size. The city refused to grant a permit citing its historic land mark preservation ordinance. The church then claimed the ordinance violated the RFRA. The city said the RFRA is unconstitutional, a U.S. District Judge agreed with the city, but the federal appeals court sided with the church and upheld the law. Then the city appealed to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiori, and the high court agreed to hear the case.

Immediately sixteen states filed "Friends of the Court" briefs claiming the RFRA gave prisoners religious rights that jeopardize their security. They said the RFRA has disrupted prison life by allowing gangs and like-minded groups to shroud illicit activity under the cover of religious belief. The states who have filed amicus briefs complaining about the RFRA as applied to Indian religions in prisons are: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Vermont. Our prayers are needed lest we lose the most important statutory defense for religious liberty of this century.