A judge on Wednesday acquitted Amber Ortega, a Tohono O’odham woman who was arrested while praying and “compelled to protect the land,” the Arizona Daily Star reported, at a border wall construction site in Arizona. Ortega and her mentor, Nellie Jo David, were arrested in September of 2020 after they physically put themselves in the way of the wall’s construction near Quitobaquito Springs, a site sacred to the Hia C-ed O’odham people, the Tucson Sentinel reported. The two were charged with interfering with an agency function and violating a closure order, two misdemeanors. According to the Sentinel , while David accepted a plea deal in June requiring her to pay $200 and serve a probation period, Ortega insisted that federal law should protect her religious beliefs. Ortega’s defense said she should be protected under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits federal and state governments from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.” The Daily Star reported that in a November bench trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie A. Bowman said the area’s closure did not meet the “substantial burden” requirement because Ortega still had access to Quitobaquito Springs. She also declined to hear the testimony of a Tohono O’odham… Read full this story
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