Conservative legal experts take up Apache Oak Flat religious freedom case
By Brian Roewe
EarthBeat
April 19, 2021
As the Apache people have sought to protect and preserve the Oak Flat area in Arizona from a potential copper mine, they have drawn support from other Native American tribes, conservation organizations like the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, progressive faith groups, and politicians, including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Recently, their struggle has also attracted the attention of conservative religious liberty scholars.
In the past three months, more than a dozen experts on religious freedom, including prominent Catholic scholars like Helen Alvaré, Robert George and Richard Garnett, have joined several amicus briefs supporting the Apache's legal case.