News Release
For Immediate Release: 9.1.26
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Diverse Groups Urge Supreme Court to Protect Native American Religious Site from Destruction by Texas City Planners
City of San Antonio plans to destroy sacred site on the San Antonio River where for centuries Native American tribes have gathered for worship ceremonies.
Washington, DC—Several organizations, including the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Comanche Nation, the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, and the Sikh Coalition and others, are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to take up a case that would stop the City of San Antonio from destroying a worship site sacred to the Native American Church. First Liberty Institute and The University of Texas’s Law and Religion Clinic represent ceremonial leaders of the church.
“We are grateful for the support from these diverse organizations who understand the importance of protecting religious liberty for everyone,” said Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Executive Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “These organizations have united to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the Free Exercise rights of this Native American church.”
“The wide range of ‘friend-of-the-court’ briefs demonstrates the importance of this case for religious liberty, particularly for minority faiths,” said Professor Steven T. Collis, director of the UT Law and Religion Clinic. “We look forward to making our case that religious groups—not the government—are the ones who decide what their own religion requires.”
For centuries, numerous tribes have worshipped at a sacred site in San Antonio near the San Antonio River in an area now identified as Brackenridge Park. Native American artifacts dating back several thousand years identify the park as one of the most significant archeological sites in Texas and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Antiquities Landmark. Throughout the site’s long history, indigenous peoples gathered there for ceremonies, seasonal meetings, access to fresh water, and spiritual observances linked to the springs. The site continues to be central to modern Native American Church traditions where the ceremonies require the conjunction of the river, the surrounding trees, and cormorants nesting at that place. The City of San Antonio plans to cut down the trees around the riverbend and to drive away the nesting cormorants. If destroyed, the church cannot perform its religious services and will destroy Petitioners’ religious exercise forever.
Other organizations submitting “friend-of-the-court” briefs include: Human Rights Defense Center, CatholicVote.org Education Fund, National Religious Broadcasters, Religious Freedom Institute, International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic, Indigenous Religion Scholars, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
