Source: https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/people-v-woody-24460
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 18:15:54+00:00

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The Supreme Court of the United States recently in Sherbert v. Verner, supra, restated the rule. In Sherbert a South Carolina employer discharged appellant, a Seventh-day Adventist, because she refused to work on Saturdays. Since her "conscientious scruples" against Saturday work precluded her from obtaining other employment, appellant applied for unemployment compensation benefits. The South Carolina Employment Security Commission rejected appellant's claim [61 Cal.2d 719] upon the ground that she had "... failed, without good cause ... to accept available suitable work. ..." The South Carolina courts affirmed the commission's ruling despite appellant's contention that application of the disqualifying provision of the statute abridged her right to the free exercise of her religion.
[3a] The first step requires an exploration into the particulars of this case to determine whether section 11500 of [61 Cal.2d 720] the Health and Safety Code imposes any burden upon the free exercise of defendants' religion. An examination of the record as to the nature of peyote and its role in the religion practiced by defendants as members of the Native American Church of California compels the conclusion that the statutory prohibition most seriously infringes upon the observance of the religion.
The "meeting," a ceremony marked by the sacramental use of peyote, composes the cornerstone of the peyote religion. [61 Cal.2d 721] The meeting convenes in an enclosure and continues from sundown Saturday to sunrise Sunday. To give thanks for the past good fortune or find guidance for future conduct, a member will "sponsor" a meeting and supply to those who attend both the peyote and the next morning's breakfast. The "sponsor," usually but not always the "leader," takes charge of the meeting; he decides the order of events and the amount of peyote to be consumed. Although the individual leader exercises an absolute control of the meeting, anthropologists report a striking uniformity of its ritual.
The evidence indicates that the Indians do not in fact employ peyote in place of proper medical care; and, as the Attorney General with fair objectivity admits, "there was no evidence to suggest that Indians who use peyote are more liable to become addicted to other narcotics than non-peyote- using Indians." Nor does the record substantiate the state's fear of the "indoctrination of small children"; it shows that Indian children never, and Indian teenagers rarely, use peyote. Finally, as the Attorney General likewise admits, the opinion [61 Cal.2d 723] of scientists and other experts is "that peyote ... works no permanent deleterious injury to the Indian. ..." Indeed, as we have noted, these experts regard the moral standards of members of the Native American Church as higher than those of Indians outside the church.
We turn to the several cases cited by the Attorney General which uphold statutes restricting religious practices. The People principally rely upon Reynolds v. United States (1878) 98 U.S. 145 [25 L.Ed. 244], which ruled that Congress could constitutionally apply to Mormons a prohibition against polygamy. The Mormon doctrine of polygamy rested in alleged divine origin and imposed upon male members, circumstances permitting, the observance of the practice upon pain of eternal damnation.
The Supreme Court held that the history of the laws against polygamy showed that the condemnation of the practice was a matter of the gravest social importance. It found in polygamy [61 Cal.2d 725] the seed of destruction of a democratic society. fn. 6 Viewing the practice as highly injurious to its female adherents, the court classed polygamy with such religious rites as sacrifice of human beings and funeral immolation of widows.
 Finally, we deal with the Attorney General's argument that our present conclusion requires an inquiry in each case into the bona fides of a particular defendant's beliefs, an inquiry which is both difficult and "repugnant to the spirit of our law. ..." Yet the trier of fact need inquire only into the question of whether the defendant's belief in Peyotism is honest and in good faith. As the court in United States v. Ballard (1944) 322 U.S. 78 [64 S.Ct. 882, 88 L.Ed. 1148], held, although judicial examination of the truth or validity of religious beliefs is foreclosed by the First Amendment, the courts of necessity must ask whether the claimant holds his belief honestly and in good faith or whether he seeks to wear the mantle of religious immunity merely as a cloak for illegal activities.
Courts reach such factual determinations in a host of related circumstances. Thus the Universal Military Training and Service Act (1948) 50 U.S.C.App., section 456(j), exempts from combat training and service any person "who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form." (See, e.g., Rempel v. United States (10th Cir. 1955) 220 F.2d 949, 951; [61 Cal.2d 727] United States v. Hagaman (3rd Cir. 1954) 213 F.2d 86, 89; In re Jost (1953) 117 Cal.App.2d 379, 387 [256 P.2d 71], revd. 347 U.S. 901 [74 S.Ct. 427, 98 L.Ed. 1061] [applying conscientious objector provision in Internal Security Act of 1950, 8 U.S.C.Supp. IV, § 735].) Significantly, title II, section 3, of the National Prohibition Act (1919) 41 Stat. 308-309, exempted from prohibition the use of wine for sacramental purposes.
We know that some will urge that it is more important to subserve the rigorous enforcement of the narcotic laws than to carve out of them an exception for a few believers in a strange faith. They will say that the exception may produce problems of enforcement and that the dictate of the state must overcome the beliefs of a minority of Indians. But the problems of enforcement here do not inherently differ from those of other situations which call for the detection of fraud. On the other hand, the right to free religious expression embodies a precious heritage of our history. In a mass society, which presses at every point toward conformity, the protection of a self-expression, however unique, of the individual and the group becomes ever more important. The varying currents of the subcultures that flow into the mainstream of our national life give it depth and beauty. We preserve a greater value than an ancient tradition when we protect the rights of the Indians who honestly practiced an old religion [61 Cal.2d 728] in using peyote one night at a meeting in a desert hogan near Needles, California.
­FN 1. Defendants also rely upon Cal. Const., art. I, section 4, which provides: "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be guaranteed in this State; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness or juror on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of this State."
­FN 3. Although Peyotism has not assumed a major role in American Indian life, it has in some respects affected it. On the one hand, no extant Indian nation recognizes it as its national religion; the Navajo Tribal Code forbids the possession of peyote, the driving of a car while under the influence of peyote, and the sale of peyote on the reservation. On the other hand, however, most anthropological authorities hold Peyotism to be a positive, rather than negative, force in the lives of its adherents. Since the church forbids the use of alcohol and has adopted many of the moral precepts of Christianity, these authorities conclude that members observe higher standards than nonmembers.
­FN 4. New Mexico Statutes (1959) 54-5-16; Montana Statutes (1959) 94-35-23.
­FN 5. In Arizona v. Attakai, Criminal No. 4098, Coconino County, July 26, 1960; appeal by State dismissed by Arizona Supreme Court. The Arizona court held that its narcotics statute could not constitutionally be applied to members of the Native American Church.
­FN 8. Such cases as Prince v. Massachusetts (1943) 321 U.S. 158 [64 S.Ct. 438, 88 L.Ed. 645] [child labor law applied to guardian of a 9-year-old Jehovah's Witness]; Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1904) 197 U.S. 11 [25 S.Ct. 358, 49 L.Ed.643] [compulsory vaccination law]; and In re Ferguson (1961) 55 Cal.2d 663 [12 Cal.Rptr. 753, 361 P.2d 417] [lawful incarceration restricting religious observances] must be distinguished from the present case upon similar grounds.
SCOCAL, People v. Woody , 61 Cal.2d 716 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/people-v-woody-24460) (last visited Sunday April 21, 2019).

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