Blog: No end to fight over San Francisco Peaks
Monday, June 15, 2009
Filed Under:
Environment
|
Law
"Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, Arizona skiers may soon be spared the inconvenience of living in one of the Union’s warmest and driest states.
Last week the high court removed the final legal hurdle blocking Arizona Snowbowl from making artificial snow with reclaimed sewage effluent on the San Francisco Peaks—a plan which 13 southwestern tribes say will desecrate their sacred mountain.
In a long-running lawsuit filed against the the U.S.Forest Service (the ski center's landlord) the Navajo and several other tribes had sought protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing that to make snow on the mountain would decrease the "spiritual fulfillment" tribal members get from practicing their religion. By declining, without comment, to act on the tribes' appeal of a lower court ruling, the Supreme Court effectively gave Snowbowl the go-ahead.
Lawyers for the tribes say they still have several options (which appear to be long shots) for blocking Snowbowl. For now, though, Snowbowl is free to busy itself with that time-honored Western tradition: moving water uphill toward money."
Get the Story:
An end to the "Snow War"?
(The Goat Blog 6/15)
Supreme Court Briefs:
Department
of Justice |
Arizona
Snowbowl |
Navajo
Nation/Tribes
9th Circuit Decision:
Navajo
Nation v. US Forest Service (August 8, 2008)
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