Landmark Supreme Court Case
Oregon v Smith
November 6, 1989
Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Amendment in question: 1st Amendment
Background and details of the case
Two Native American men took peyote, an illegal drug, as part of a Native American ceremony for the Native American Church. They were denied benefits because it was considered worker misconduct. As a result, the two men were denied beneficial rights by the government because of state laws that prohibit the use of illegal drugs
Court Ruling
The courts decision was a 6-3 decision in favor of the employment division. The argument was that Justice Harry blackmun thought we should pay more attention to the fact that illegal drugs were used as a religious ceremony rather than a "war on drugs". Another argument was that the use of peyote was considered dangerous even though there have been no crimes committed with the use of peyote
Constitutional issues and significance
The constitutional issue was that the first amendment was put into question since the freedom of religion was "violated". This affected us now because now although we have the freedom of religion but we're not allowed to violate any laws