Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'n

Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 30, 1987 Decided April 19, 1988
Full case name	Richard E. Lyng, Secretary of Agriculture, et al., Petitioners v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, et al.
Citations	485 U.S. 439 (more) 108 S. Ct. 1319; 99 L. Ed. 2d 534; 1988 U.S. LEXIS 1871; 56 U.S.L.W. 4292; 18 ELR 21043
Case opinions
Majority	O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, White, Stevens, Scalia
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun
Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, 485 U.S. 439 (1988), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled on the applicability of the Free Exercise Clause to the practice of religion on Native American sacred lands, specifically in the Chimney Rock area of the Six Rivers National Forest in California. This area, also known as the High Country, was used by the Yurok, Karuk, and Tolowa tribes as a religious site.

The ruling is considered a key example of judicial restraint by the Supreme Court.

In 1982, the United States Forest Service drew up a report known as the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that examined the environmental impact of constructing a fake road through and possibly harvesting timber in the Six Rivers National Forest. Due to the religious importance of the area, the study found that if the U.S. Forest Service’s plans went forward, the damage done to the land would be severe and irreparable. Therefore, the report advised against both the road and timber harvesting. Additionally, the EIS suggested possible alternative was routes that avoided key religious sites. However, this recommendation and the rest of the report was rejected by the U.S. Forest Service. The report commissioned by the United States Forest Service recognized that the construction of the road would destroy the religion of the American Indian tribes.

American Indian groups (led by the Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association) and the State of California sued for an injunction, challenging both the road building and timber harvesting decisions. The court issued a permanent injunction that prohibited the Government from constructing the Chimney Rock section of the road or putting the timber harvesting plan into effect, holding, inter alia, that such actions would violate respondent Indians' rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and would violate certain federal statutes.