The Native American Church and the New Court: The Smith Case and Indian Religious Freedoms

For several decades the peyotists within the Native American Church of North America have won numerous legal battles that have helped to ensure the continued existence of their religion. Beginning in 1960 with the landmark decision Arizona v. Attakai, a consistent set of state court decisions have supported the church's claim that the use of peyote is a reasonable and legitimate aspect of religion within the church. In 1964, for example, in People v. Woody, et al., the California Supreme Court overturned the drug conviction of church members, saying the state had no "compelling interest" to justify a ban on ceremonial peyote use. The Woody court concluded that a ban would remove the "theological heart of Peyotism" and that the government's need to fight drug abuse could not be used to deny religious freedom automatically to members of the Native American Church. Since the Woody decision, the United States Congress has taken legislative steps to clarify and enhance Indian religious freedoms by the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.