Article that discusses the UDV’s victory in the US Supreme Court is translated into Portuguese

André Fagundes*

| October 7, 2021

The victory by the Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal before the United States Supreme Court is a remarkable milestone in the history of the institution, and is the result of great dedication, competence and strategic work combined with trust in Mestre Gabriel (founder and Spiritual Guide of the UDV), who had predicted that “From Manaus, the União do Vegetal will circle the world.”

It was a real battle of David vs. Goliath, in which the small religious organization overcame the strong onslaught of the US government that tried to prevent the operation of the UDV in its territory. It was a great achievement not only for the institution and its affiliates, but also for the defense of the fundamental right to free exercise of religion. For this reason, the case is considered one of the most important religious freedom cases ever tried by the country’s Supreme Court in the last century.

This important event is described in detail by Jeffrey Bronfman (Representative Mestre of the UDV in the USA at the time) in the article “The Legal Case of the União do Vegetal vs. The Government of the United States”, published in the collection: LABATE, Beatriz; JUNGABERLE, Henrik (Orgs.). The Internationalization of Ayahuasca. Zürich: Lit Verlag, 2011, p. 287-300. After analyzing the evolution of the legislative and judicial treatment given to the right to religious freedom in the United States, the text narrates the struggle and victory of the UDV in different American judicial instances.

The article was translated into Portuguese and published in Dignitas – Revista Internacional do Instituto Brasileiro de Direito e Religião (International Journal of the Brazilian Institute of Law and Religion), which is available on the UDV-Science website.

| Click here and read the article authored by M. Jeffrey Bronfman.

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*André Fagundes is a Legal Advisor to the Novo Encanto Association for Ecological Development and a member of the Instructive Body of Nucleo Samaúma (Araçariguama-SP).