Court Opinion

ID: 9803014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 15:11:20.415528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:02:33.207989
License: Public Domain

JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the carefully written panel opinion with one point of clarification. Soto is without dispute an Indian and a member and regular participant in the Li-pan Apache Tribe, which, although not federally recognized, has long historical roots in Texas. The panel opinion discusses— and is also limited by — Soto’s RFRA claim based on his and his tribe’s status. No more should be read into the RFRA protection intended by this decision.
Both the conservation of eagles and the way of life of federally recognized Indian tribes are of signal national importance, as indicated by decades of federal law and regulations. If the government sustains its position that the supply of eagle feathers is limited and that increasing access by non-reeognized tribe members, or even by non-Indians, to eagle feathers for sacred purposes will endanger the eagles and the federally recognized tribes, this case becomes very close. Broadening the universe of “believers” who seek eagle feathers might then seriously endanger the religious practices of real Native Americans. Soto’s status does not eliminate the potential problems, which will be explored at trial, but cabins this case to Native American co-religionists.