James Warren "Flaming Eagle" Mooney and his wife, Linda, are suing the federal, state and Utah County government for the right to use peyote in religious services at the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church.

If the government's attorneys are smart, they will quickly settle with the Mooneys rather than drag out a lawsuit the government is bound to lose.

The Mooneys have faced state and federal drug charges because they allowed non-Indians to join their church and participate in peyote ceremonies. Prosecutors, including Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, took the unlikely position that the church was merely a front for people to get peyote for recreational purposes. Given peyote's extremely uncomfortable physical effects, this is a stretch at best.

Peyote usually makes the user violently ill before reportedly bringing a sense of enlightenment. Native Americans use it to gain spiritual insight and heal wounded souls.

Mooney says peyote ceremonies have helped drug addicts kick their habits once and for all by helping them understand and confront the causes of addictions or other problems in their lives.

So far, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Mooneys, declaring that they have a right to allow any church member to participate in church services involving peyote.

That decision prompted the Utah Legislature to enact a law this year outlawing peyote use to all but registered American Indians. The law was a clear attempt to target James Mooney, who is of Indian ancestry but is not registered with a federally recognized tribe.

The federal government dropped its charges against the Mooneys in return for their promise that they would not conduct peyote ceremonies unless federal law allowed them to do so.

It is sad that the Mooneys were ever prosecuted, much less forced to go to court to secure what Americans consider an unalienable right -- religious liberty. The First Amendment clearly states the government must take a hands-off approach to religion. It cannot favor one religion over another, nor can it restrict a religious group. Religious experience is not a matter of race, and any law that limits religious practice based on race ought to be thrown out.

The prosecution of the Mooneys and the bill that went through the Legislature represent attempts by government to dictate dogma to a church. If non-Indians may join a church in the first place, it follows that the should have a right to full participation in its ceremonies.That is a decision rightfully left to religious leaders.

This was obvious seven years ago, when Utah County Sheriff's deputies first raided the Mooneys' church, and it is only reinforced by a recent Supreme Court decision allowing a Texas church to use a hallucinogenic tea in its worship services.

Given that, it would be hard to imagine any court's refusing to grant Mooney permission for the resumption of peyote ceremonies. Utah's new law limiting peyote use on the basis of race should be nullified.