On the morning of February 21, 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States published a unanimous ruling in favor of the UDV and its religious use of its sacrament hoasca. A website containing a detailed analysis of the legal action brought by the church, containing all of the different court decisions, was established on the Internet at www.udvusa.org.
The outcome of this extraordinary, historic case, widely viewed as the most significant Supreme Court ruling to date on the thirteen-year-old Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which places a very high burden on the government in seeking to restrict religious observance) does not, of course, sanction shamanic plant use outside of the specific confines of UDV religious practice. However, it is clearly of enormous significance for anyone with a deep respect for the potential “entheogenic” properties of certain plants with a long history of sacred use.