Opponents of sacred site protection have failed again. In our film, In the Light of Reverence, we told the story of an Arizona butte that is sacred to the Hopi and Zuni where mining for gravel has destroyed nine Hopi shrines. The owner of Woodruff Butte teamed up with Mountain States Legal Foundation to argue that Arizona’s Department of Transportation policy banning the use of material mined from the sacred butte in state construction projects represented an endorsement of native religion in violation of the First Amendment establishment clause. On September 1, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that rather than advancing any particular religion, safeguarding Native American sacred sites “has historical value for the nation as a whole.” Judge Betty B. Fletcher wrote: “Native American sacred sites of historical value are entitled to the same protection as the many Judeo-Christian religious sites.” Read the decision here.