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Friend. Foe, Frenemy: The United States And American Indian Religious Freedom, Allison M. Dussias

Allison M Dussias

FRIEND, FOE, FRENEMY:

THE UNITED STATES AND AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Allison M. Dussias,

New England Law|Boston

In 1990, the Supreme Court decided Employment Division v. Smith, in which the Court concluded that a claim that a neutral and generally applicable criminal law burdens religious conduct need not be evaluated under the compelling governmental interest test set out by the Court in Sherbert v. Verner (1963). The Court relied on two recently decided cases, Bowen v. Roy (1986) and Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988). All three of these cases rejected Free Exercise claims brought by American Indians. …