When U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors found a hairy monkey arm hidden in Mamie Manneh’s New York City garage, she claimed it appeared “as a gift from God in heaven.”

The inspectors didn’t buy it. Federal agents slapped Manneh with smuggling charges, saying she illegally imported 12 cardboard boxes filled with the “skulls, limbs and torsos” of endangered monkeys. Manneh countered that eating monkey meat is part of her religion, and now the case is turning into a clash between competing government interests: religious liberty, public health, and protection of endangered species.

Manneh, a West African immigrant, attends a Staten Island church that combines Christianity with African tribal customs. She and other congregants eat monkey meat (or bushmeat) on baptisms, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and weddings. Her supporters said in a sworn statement, “We eat bushmeat for our souls.”

The meat comes from Africa’s endangered green monkey, and the federal government argues that it has an interest in conserving the species. A criminal complaint also cautioned against monkey meat’s potential health risks, including “diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.”

Roger Severino, legal counsel for the Becket Fund, told WoW the Becket Fund has advised Manneh’s lawyers and maintains that conservation shouldn’t trump religious liberty: “The Endangered Species Act didn’t repeal the First Amendment.” He also said that public health concerns are irrelevant to the facts of the case since the meat was smoked, dried and safe for consumption.

Yes, eating monkey meat is foreign to Western culture, but Severino said “the First Amendment protects unfamiliar religions.” The government allows other religious groups an exemption for illegal or imported substances, Severino said, and “the government can’t pick and choose what religion it likes and doesn’t like based on taste.”

An evangelical Christian sued a Jewish community center for religious discrimination. She lost, but she may have won a victory for Christian ministries nationwide.

Linda LeBoon sued the Lancaster Jewish Community Center Association when the center fired her from her bookkeeping job. The Civil Rights Act forbids religious discrimination, but it allows religious organizations an exemption. LeBoon argued that LJCC couldn’t claim the exemption since it “lacked financial or administrative ties with a synagogue and its nature and purposes were primarily cultural, not religious.”

The Third Circuit Court disagreed, pointing to the LJCC’s stated values, their involvement with religious services, and the fact that they displayed Scripture. Gary McCaleb , senior counsel at Alliance Defense Fund, said the center “would not allow their facility to be used for things that were in tension with their Jewish religious beliefs …. They actually had a Messiah Truth Project to help Jewish people respond to things like the Messianic Jewish movement.”

McCaleb said courts usually have “a difficult time understanding … ministries that are outside of a pure church context.” In this case, McCaleb believes the court judged well: “Look at the principle, not the people involved. … They set up a good test.”

The court rejects the definition of another circuit court — another reason the case is significant. When two circuit courts disagree, McCaleb said, “That’s when the Supreme Court raises an eyebrow” and steps in to resolve the dispute.

The Alliance Defense Fund recently defended a Christian homeless ministry that did not hire a qualified applicant because the applicant was not a professing Christian. Like the LJCC, the ministry was not directly church-sponsored. McCaleb said now if a similar case arises, “We can turn around and say, ‘Look at what the Third Circuit Court said.’”