Supreme Court clears way for massive copper mine on Apache sacred land

The Supreme Court said it will not hear a challenge to the construction of a massive copper mine by a group of Apache who consider the Arizona land sacred.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch dissented, saying the majority’s decision not to take the case was “a grievous mistake.”

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an Apache religious challenge to the construction of a massive copper mine on Oak Flat, a swath of untouched federal land in Arizona that tribe members consider sacred and irreplaceable.

The decision, which leaves intact a lower court’s ruling against the tribe members, marked a major loss for Apache Stronghold, a group that has long argued that the mine’s construction would violate their religious rights by permanently wiping out a unique sacred site used for Apache religious cer