'If Oak Flat were a Christian holy site, or for that matter Jewish or Muslim, no senator who wished to remain in office would dare to sneak a backdoor deal for its destruction into a spending bill — no matter what mining-company profits or jobs might result. But this is Indian religion. Clearly the Arizona congressional delegation isn’t afraid of a couple of million conquered natives.'
Surely there is something in the Sacred Book of RFRA, Much Beloved of the GOP (Though Passed as a Bi-Partisan Bill at the Time) that will allow this to be blocked. If corporations can be considered "people" who can have sacrosanct religious opinions that exempt them from the law, surely a people's holy site can be saved from a mining company.
(Added irony: the site was first deemed off-limits to mining by Eisenhower, later confirmed in Nixon's administration … now sneakily sold off by modern-day Republicans McCain and Flake.)
Selling Off Apache Holy Land – NYTimes.com
What motivated Congress to give Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site, to a mining company that will certainly destroy it?
