United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has blocked a New Mexico church from using Ayahuasca tea in its religious ceremonies. Earlier this month, a lower court had approved an injunction allowing the congregants to use the tea after the Justice Department had tried to ban them from doing so.

Ayahuasca is used as a sacrament in Native American religious ceremonies. Breyer's temporary stay trumps the 10th Circuit Court, which had ruled in favor of the Brazilian Ayahuasca Church or Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) and against the federal government in allowing the church to use the hallucinogen.

The Acting Solicitor General, Paul Clement, argues that allowing UDV members to use Ahayuasca would violate United States foreign policy.

"Compliance with the injunction would force the United States to go into violation of an international treaty designed to prevent drug trafficking worldwide, which could have both short- and long-term foreign relations costs and could impair the policing of transnational drug trafficking involving the most dangerous controlled substances," Clement wrote in a court filing.

Clement's argument is similar to the one he posed in Raich v. Ashcroft before the Supreme Court this week. In Raich, the government argues that homegrown marijuana used legally for medical purposes in California and never sold could influence interstate commerce.