Sunday, October 12, 2014

Withdrawal of Land From Uranium Mining Survives Establishment Clause Challenge

In Yount v. Salazar, (D AZ, Sept. 30, 2014), an Arizona federal district court held that the Secretary of Interior's withdrawal of more than 1 million acres of federal land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park from uuanium mining did not violate the Establishment Clause. While one of the government's purposes was "to protect against the impact of uranium mining on cultural and tribal resources," this was a proper secular purpose.