San Francisco Peaks - Photo by David Muench
As loyal readers. . . . Wait. That’s the only kind of readers this blog has. . . . As all our readers remember, we discussed the awful decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the Snowbowl Ski operation north of Flagstaff, Arizona to spray treated sewage water on the San Francisco Peaks. (Part I, Part II)
That was the case in which the court held, at the request of the U.S. Forest Service, that religious freedom from government action does not include the “subjective” experience of religion. As we noted in those blog entries, “subjective experience” of religion is just a longer way of saying, “faith” which is the entire object of the religious experience.
Navajo Sandpainting
The southwestern Indian tribes to whom the mountains are sacred filed a petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court this week. You can read it here. A petition for certiorari is simply a request of the Supreme Court that it hear the case. The Court declines about 95% of the cases it is asked to hear. (Appeals are automatic only to the level of the 12 circuit courts around the country. The Supreme Court takes only the cases it wants to hear and it doesn’t want to hear very many.)
I suspect it will choose to hear this one ,although we won’t know for awhile. Next, both the Forest Service and the ski slope operators have an opportunity to file responses telling the Court why it should decline to hear the case.
The possibility exists that the incoming administration will adopt a more enlightened position. But the owners of the ski operation will are entitled to state their position no matter what the Forest Service might decide.
