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Full-Text Articles in Religion Law
A Property Rights Approach To Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting A Place For Indians As Nonowners, Kristen A. Carpenter
A Property Rights Approach To Sacred Sites Cases: Asserting A Place For Indians As Nonowners, Kristen A. Carpenter
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Although the Free Exercise Clause prohibits governmental interference with religion, American Indians have been unsuccessful in challenging government actions that harm tribal sacred sites located on federal public lands. The First Amendment dimensions of these cases have been well studied by scholars, but this Article contends that it is also important to analyze them through a property law lens. Indeed, the Supreme Court has treated the federal government's ownership of public lands as a basis for denying Indian religious freedoms claims. This Article contends that such holdings rely on an "ownership model" of property law wherein the rights of the …
In The Absence Of Title: Responding To Federal Ownership In Sacred Sites Cases, Kristen A. Carpenter
In The Absence Of Title: Responding To Federal Ownership In Sacred Sites Cases, Kristen A. Carpenter
Publications
This paper examines the challenge of protecting American Indian sacred sites located on federal public lands. Many have addressed this issue in the religious freedoms context, but I believe the problem is just as much about property law. The Supreme Court's decision in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, for example, would appear to suggest that federal ownership of certain sacred sites trumps tribal free exercise clause claims regarding those sites. This holding corresponds with a classic model in which "[p]roperty is about rights over things and the people who have those rights are called owners." However, a …