Source: http://openjurist.org/290/f3d/1210
Timestamp: 2015-09-03 13:24:04
Document Index: 288429244

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 67', '§ 1421', '§ 2000', '§ 1421', '§ 1421', '§ 1421']

290 F3d 1210 Guam v. Guerrero | OpenJurist
290 F. 3d 1210 - Guam v. Guerrero Home
290 F3d 1210 Guam v. Guerrero 290 F.3d 1210
People of GUAM, Petitioner,v.Benny Toves GUERRERO, Respondent.
No. 00-71247.
Tricia R.S. Ada, argued the cause for petitioner; Robert H. Kono, Angela M. Borzachillo, Office of the Guam Attorney General, Hagätña, Guam, were on the briefs.
* Police officers of the Territory of Guam arrested Benny Toves Guerrero1 at the Guam International Airport after they found five ounces of marijuana and ten grams of marijuana seeds in his belongings. He was duly indicted under Guam's statutes criminalizing the importation of controlled substances. 9 Guam Code Ann. §§ 67.23(d)(10), 67.89(a), 80.33.7. Guerrero moved to dismiss his indictment on the ground that the statutes violated his right freely to exercise his religion — Rastafarianism — under the Organic Act of Guam ("Organic Act"), 48 U.S.C. §§ 1421 et seq., and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb et seq.
Because we are reviewing a decision of a territorial supreme court that interpreted a federal statute, our standard of review is de novo. Gutierrez v. Pangelinan, 276 F.3d 539, 546-47 (9th Cir.2002). We recognize that on matters of local concern, appellate courts apply a highly deferential standard of review. See, e.g., De Castro v. Board of Comm'rs, 322 U.S. 451, 454, 64 S.Ct. 1121, 88 L.Ed. 1384 (1944) (declining to overrule a territorial court on matters of local concern absent "clear" or "manifest" error or an "inescapably wrong" interpretation) (quoting Sancho v. Texas Co., 308 U.S. 463, 471, 60 S.Ct. 349, 84 L.Ed. 401 (1940)); EIE Guam Corp. v. Supreme Court of Guam, 191 F.3d 1123, 1127 (9th Cir.1999) ("Although Congress certainly has given us jurisdiction to review issues of local Guam law, we hesitate to use this authority where, on the merits, the Guam Supreme Court appears to have construed a Guam statute reasonably and fairly."). Nonetheless, despite the fact that we are dealing with Guam's "Bill of Rights," we cannot ignore the fact that § 1421b(a) is a federal statute dealing with an issue of federal constitutional import, not a local law. As such, we employ a de novo standard of review.
Guam remains an unincorporated territory of the United States, 48 U.S.C. § 1421a, subject to the plenary power of Congress. Guam v. Okada, 694 F.2d 565, 568 (9th Cir.1982).5 Congress has the power to legislate directly for Guam or to establish a government for Guam subject to congressional control, and except as Congress may determine, Guam has no inherent right to govern itself. Id. With the exception of certain "fundamental rights," federal constitutional rights do not automatically apply to unincorporated territories. Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 312-13, 42 S.Ct. 343, 66 L.Ed. 627 (1922); Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138, 147, 24 S.Ct. 808, 49 L.Ed. 128 (1904). An act of Congress is required to extend constitutional rights to the inhabitants of unincorporated territories. Pugh v. United States, 212 F.2d 761, 762-63 (9th Cir. 1954).
* The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." U.S. Const. amend. I. In Employment Division, Department of Human Resources v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990), Smith was a member of the Native American Church who ingested peyote for sacramental purposes at a church ceremony. As a result, Smith's employer, a private drug rehabilitation organization, fired him. When he applied for unemployment compensation, the state agency denied his application because a state statute disqualified individuals who had been fired for work-related "misconduct." Id. at 874, 110 S.Ct. 1595. Smith sued, arguing that the denial of unemployment compensation burdened his First Amendment right to exercise his religion freely. The Supreme Court declined to apply Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963), which required laws that substantially burden the free exercise of religion to be supported by a compelling government interest, and instead adopted a "neutral rules of general applicability" test. Id. at 884, 110 S.Ct. 1595. The Court held that neutral, generally applicable laws may be applied to religious practices, even when not supported by a compelling government interest. Id. at 884-85, 110 S.Ct. 1595.
The Supreme Court of Guam interpreted § 1421b(a) to provide the level of free exercise protection found in the U.S. Supreme Court's Sherbert decision — namely, a law that substantially burdens the free exercise of religion must be justified by a compelling government interest and must burden no more religious exercise than necessary to achieve that interest. Sherbert, 374 U.S. at 403, 83 S.Ct. 1790. Applying this standard, the Supreme Court of Guam held that Guam had not shown a compelling government interest served by its statute forbidding the importation of a controlled substance or that it was properly tailored. Absent such showing, it reasoned, Guam could not prosecute Guerrero for importing a contr