SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court said on
Wednesday that it would reconsider its decision that barred an
Arizona ski resort from using treated sewage to make snow on a
mountain sacred to several Native American tribes.
The long-running case has pitted economic and leisure
interests against the beliefs of American Indian tribes, with
both sides winning at various stages of the litigation.
In March, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled in favor of the Navajo Nation and other tribes
in finding that treated waste water should be barred under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law which says the
federal government may not "substantially burden a person's
exercise of religion."
Without offering their reasons the judges on the 9th
Circuit based in San Francisco agreed on Wednesday to have a
11-person expanded panel of judges reconsider the earlier
ruling.
The Arizona Snowbowl resort on a federally owned mountain
150 miles north of Phoenix wanted to use artificial snow to
assure a long consistent season. According to the Navajo
Nation, the San Francisco Peaks are sacred to more than 13
Native American nations.