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Church of Cognizance founders can’t escape drug charges
Individuals — even church founders — cannot use the “cover of religion to pursue secular drug trafficking activities,” a federal appeals court panel has ruled.
[...]The Quaintances [Dan and Mary Quaintance - RNB] in 1991 founded the Church of Cognizance, organized around the principle that marijuana is a deity and a sacrament. The couple claimed a religious-based defense to the drug charges under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. In order to assert a defense under RFRA, a defendant initially must show that a government action substantially burdens a sincerely held religious belief.
A federal district court in New Mexico found that the couple’s beliefs were not religious and added that they failed to show that those beliefs were sincerely held.
The couple later pleaded guilty to the drug charges but in their plea reserved the right to appeal the court’s rulings on their religious-based defense.
On appeal, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 19 affirmed the denial of the couple’s RFRA defense in United States v. Quaintance. The panel agreed that evidence in the case established that the Quaintances had failed to establish that their beliefs about marijuana as a sacred substance were sincerely held.
“As the district court noted, numerous pieces of evidence in this case strongly suggest that the Quaintances’ marijuana dealings were motivated by commercial or secular motives rather than sincere religious conviction,” the panel wrote.
Kripner had testified before the lower court that the couple regularly purchased marijuana from him and talked about the drug in terms of business.
[...more...]
See Also
• Church of Cognizance (official website)
• Church of Cognizance news archive
• United States v. Quaintance 
Note: The First Amendment Center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government. Its website is one of the most authoritative sources of news, information and commentary in the nation on First Amendment issues.
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