The petitioner, Richard E. Lyng, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture at the time, claimed that constructing a road and harvesting timber through lands considered sacred by Native American tribes did not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

[6] The respondent in the case was the Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, et al. With the claim at hand, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to rule on the question of whether the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause prohibited the government from harvesting or developing the Chimney Rock Area.

In a vote of 5-3 (Anthony M. Kennedy did not participate), the court ruled that "construction of the proposed road does not violate the First Amendment regardless of its effect on the religious practices of the respondents because it compels no behavior contrary to their belief".

In support of the decision, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cited Bowen v. Roy (1986), a previous U.S. Supreme Court case that involved a family who did not wish to give their child a social security number for religious reasons.

Also argued with regard to the Free Exercise Clause, this holding of the court in this case was that the government could not change its system and make an exception for an individual because of religiously based reasons.

Judging by the parallels in this case with that of Lyng, Justice O’ Connor found that although damage would certainly be done to the Six Rivers/Chimney Rock area, the road construction and timber harvesting would not force individuals to violate their beliefs or be denied of the equal rights shared by other citizens of the United States.

Justice William J. Brennan Jr. disagreed with the majority opinion and, with a citation of the case Sherbert v. Verner (1963), declared that the holding of Lyng stripped Native Americans of their Constitutional protection against threats to their religious practices.