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Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990)

（00:01:04）David B. Frohnmayer

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court:

This case is before this Court a second time.

The first question was whether claimants were entitled to receive unemployment compensation benefits after being fired as drug counselors.

It is undisputed that they violated their employer's job-related rule that they be drug free because they ingested peyote in the ceremonies of the Native American Church.

A majority of this Court held that the claimants were not entitled to unemployment benefits under the doctrine of Sherbert v. Verner if their conduct, even if religiously motivated, violated a valid Oregon criminal law.

After the Oregon Supreme Court's ultimate decision on federal grounds on remand, the question is this.

Does the Free Exercise Clause require every state to exempt the religious peyote use by the Native American Church, or perhaps even beyond that, other substance use by other religions, from the reach of generally applicable criminal laws regulating the use of controlled substances by all citizens?

（00:29:12）Craig J. Dorsay

Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court:

I am compelled as an initial matter to address the subject raised by Justice Stevens relating to the use of alcohol, which I think raised one of the primary problems with this case as it comes before the Court.

I think, if you looked at this situation and Indian people were in charge of the United States right now, or in charge of government, and you look at the devastating impact that alcohol has had on Indian people and Indian tribes through the history of the United States, you might find that alcohol was the Schedule I substance and peyote was not listed at all.

And we are getting here to the heart of an ethnocentric view, I think, of what constitutes religion in the United States.

And I think that needs to be looked at very hard before determining what is a dangerous substance and what is not.