A federal appeals court on Wednesday invoked the U.S. Supreme Court’s June Hobby Lobby decision in a long-running legal battle over the possession of bald eagle feathers by members of an Indian tribe that is not federally recognized.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously ruled that the U.S. Interior Department violated the religious rights of the Lipan Apache Tribe by not giving members the same privileges to obtain eagle feathers and carcasses for religious ceremonies that recognized tribes are allowed.
