Indigenous group takes fight against Rio Tinto Arizona copper mine to US Supreme Court
A Native American group on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Rio Tinto and BHP from gaining access to Arizona land needed to build one of the world’s largest copper mines, a last-ditch legal move in a long-running case pitting religious rights against the energy transition.
Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group comprised of Arizona’s San Carlos Apache tribe and conservationists, asked the court to overturn a March ruling from a sharply divided San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the federal government to swap acreage with the mining companies for their Resolution Copper project.
ADVERTISING
The appeal to the nine justices was delivered in person by a courier after the Apache held a ceremony of prayer and dancing on the court’s steps in Washington, the culmination of a months-long caravan from their Arizona reservation to the capital.
At least four justices would need to agree to hear the appeal, in which Apache Stronghold and their attorneys at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty contend the government would be violating the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion if the mine is developed.
If the court agrees to hear the case, it could hold oral arguments in its term which begins next month and potentially issue a decision by next June.
The dispute centers on the federally owned Oak Flat Campground, known as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel in the Apache language and where many Apache worship their deities. The site sits atop a reserve of more than 40 billion pounds (18.1 million metric tons) of copper, a crucial component of electric vehicles and nearly every electronic device.
If a mine is built, it would create a crater 2 miles (3 km) wide and 1,000 feet (304 m) deep that would destroy that worship site.
