United States of America v. Ben Diaz
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
499 F.2d 113 (1974)
- Written by Kelli Lanski, JD
Facts
Ben Diaz (defendant) was charged with appropriating objects of antiquity in violation of the Antiquities Act of 1906 after he took face masks from a cave on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. The masks had been placed in the cave by a San Carlos medicine man and were considered sacred and traditionally deposited in remote places on reservations for religious reasons. The masks Diaz took were only three or four years old. Diaz argued that he was not on notice that the masks were considered antiquities, claiming that the act was unconstitutionally vague because it did not define antiquity to include items of such recent provenance. The United States argued that the age of an artifact did not matter and that an object of antiquity could include an object made yesterday if it related to a religious or social tradition of long standing. Diaz was convicted and appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Merrill, J.)
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