By Gina Holland/
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.
Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision.
The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.
New Justice Samuel Alito did not take part in the case, which was argued last fall before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before her retirement. Alito was on the bench for the first time Tuesday.
Roberts said the Bush administration had not met its burden under a federal religious freedom law to show that it could ban "the sect's sincere religious practice.''
The chief justice had also been skeptical of the government's position in the case last fall, suggesting the administration was demanding too much, a "zero tolerance approach.''
The Bush administration had argued that the drug in the tea used by a small congregation in Santa Fe, N.M., not only violates a federal narcotics law, but a treaty in which the United States promised to block the importation of drugs including dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.
"The government did not even submit evidence addressing the international consequences of granting an exemption for the (church),'' Roberts wrote.
The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which could consider more evidence.
Roberts, writing his second opinion since joining the court, said religious freedom cases can be difficult "but Congress has determined that courts should strike sensible balances.''
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver had found that the church probably has a religious-freedom right to use the tea. The Bush administration appealed.
The church's leader had sued after federal agents raided his office in Santa Fe in 1999 and seized 30 gallons of hoasca tea. No one was arrested in the raid.
The church's U.S. operations are based in Santa Fe. About 130 people, many of them Brazilian citizens, are members of the U.S. branch, according to court documents.
The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, 04-1084.
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