Read about the legal status of peyote, including the 1993 federal statute that allowed members of the Native American Church to ingest peyote as part of religious ceremonies and state laws granting exemptions for Native Americans’ ceremonial use of peyote. The information is posted by the Peyote Foundation.

Read the First Amendment Center’s article on the free exercise clause, which includes a discussion of how Employment Division v. Smith, the 1990 peyote case, changed the legal precedent for religious groups whose practices conflict with state law.

Read the First Amendment Center’s resource page on Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal. It includes amicus briefs filed for both sides of the case.

The UDV religion in the United States has a website with resources for covering the case, including a FAQ and background links.

Lawrence J. McCaffrey is author of The Irish-Catholic Diaspora in America (Catholic University of America Press, 1998) and professor emeritus of history at Loyola University in Chicago.

Erik P. Goldschmidt is director of the Church in the 21st Century Initiative at Boston College. Its research includes the state of Catholic ministry in America.

John T. McGreevy is a respected historian of U.S. Catholicism. He is history professor and dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters at Notre Dame University in Indiana.

James O’Toole is a history professor at Boston College who specializes in American Catholic history and popular devotional practices.

The Prayer Foundation has a history of New Monasticism and its roots.