Published May 7, 2026
On May 7, 2026, EPPC filed an amicus brief in the case Lopez v. United States, urging the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc. The case involves the planned destruction of a site the Apache have used for religious services for more than a thousand years. The Ninth Circuit had dismissed the Apache’s case after finding that destroying this religious site would not substantially burden their religious exercise as that term in interpreted under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
The amicus brief, filed on behalf of PPC and drafted by Ian Speir of Covenant Law, PLLC, in collaboration with EPPC Fellows Rachel N. Morrison and Eric Kniffin, explained that the Ninth Circuit got its RFRA analysis wrong and misconstrued the “substantial burden” threshold. To the extent the Ninth Circuit’s denial was based on the fear that RFRA gives religious claimants too much, the brief argues that is incorrect, explaining RFRA’s five limiting principles.
The brief urged the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc for two reasons. First, to correct a bad decision that weakens religious protections for all Americans. Second, to ensure that this religious site is not destroyed unless the government meets its heavy burden to show that it cannot advance an interest without destroying these sacred grounds.
This is the fourth brief EPPC has filed in support of the Apache. In April 2024, Kniffin filed an amicus brief on behalf of twenty-one Mennonite bodies, urging the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc. After the court refused, Kniffin and Morrison partnered with Speir on behalf of EPPC and the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) to ask the Supreme Court to take the case. After the Supreme Court declined, the case went back down to the Ninth Circuit, where Kniffin, Morrison, and Speir filed a brief also on behalf of EPPC and RFI in September 2025, urging the panel to once again correct its narrow interpretation of RFRA. That panel’s refusal led to the current appeal to the en banc Ninth Circuit.
Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project, which advocates for an authentic understanding of the human person in the drafting, implementation, and rollback of government regulations.
