United States Tenth Circuit

In a prosecution against a member of a Native American tribe for shooting an eagle without a permit in contravention of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), dismissal of the indictment based on a Religious Freedom Restoration Act challenge is reversed and remanded for trial where the Eagle Act and its regulations are the least restrictive means of pursuing the government's compelling interest in preserving the bald eagle.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/08/2008
• Published 05/08/2008

Judges

• McCONNELL, Circuit Judge., Before McCONNELL, SEYMOUR and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Kathryn E. Kovacs, United States Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section (Elizabeth Ann Peterson, Elinor Colbourn, United States Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section;  Matthew J. McKeown and Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney Generals, Washington, D.C.;   Matthew H. Mead, United States Attorney, John R. Green, Acting United States Attorney and David Kubichek and Stuart S. Healy, III, Assistant United States Attorneys, District of Wyoming, Casper, WY, with her on the briefs), for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John T. Carlson, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Denver, CO (Raymond P. Moore, Federal Public Defender, Denver, CO and Robert R. Rogers, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Cheyenne, WY, with him on the briefs), for Defendant-Appellee., Christopher J. Schneider, Baldwin & Crocker, P.C., Lander, WY, for Northern Arapaho Tribe as Amicus Curiae in support of Defendant-Appellee.