Utah Psilocybin Church Asks Full Tenth Circuit to Rehear October 5 Ruling That Cleared Its Founder's Prosecution, Law360 Reports

The founder of Singularism, a Provo, Utah, religious group whose members take psilocybin in ceremony, has asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to rehear the October 5 decision that cleared the way for his state prosecution, Law360 reported Monday. The petition for rehearing en banc argues that the three-judge panel's ruling violates the First Amendment's free-exercise guarantee. The panel had held that a federal judge should not have blocked Utah's criminal case against Bridger Lee Jensen and that Utah's psilocybin law treats religious use no worse than comparable secular use.

What was decided two weeks ago

The published opinion in Jensen v. Utah County, case No. 25-4115, was filed October 5 and written by Judge Robert Bacharach, joined by Judges David Ebel and Richard Federico. Singularism's adherents, whom the opinion calls "voyagers," take psilocybin as part of a religious ceremony; psilocybin is a controlled substance under Utah law. According to the opinion, authorities seized "over 450 grams" of it in a raid, wrote to the group's landlord two days later seeking eviction as a nuisance, and were sued within a week. After the case moved to federal court, U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish issued a temporary restraining order requiring the return of records and the mushrooms; days later the state charged Jensen with drug crimes, and the district court then enjoined that prosecution. Courthouse News, which covered the ruling on October 5, dates the raid to 2024 and the injunction to 2025.

The panel reversed on two grounds. First, under the Younger abstention doctrine, "federal district courts should ordinarily abstain from enjoining state criminal cases," and Jensen had not shown the bad faith, harassment or irreparable injury that would justify an exception. Second, on the First Amendment claim, the court found that "the Utah law doesn't treat secular activity more favorably than comparable religious activity." Utah Code § 58-37-309 lets qualified healthcare systems use psilocybin as an experimental treatment under direct supervision with written reporting; the court said religious use has no comparable safeguards, so the law is neutral and generally applicable and only has to pass rational-basis review. In Judge Bacharach's phrase, as quoted by Courthouse News, "individuals can freely exercise their religion, and states can criminalize drug use." The full opinion is posted by Courthouse News.

What the panel left open

The ruling is narrower than the headlines suggested. The Tenth Circuit vacated the injunction against the state criminal case and the denial of Utah's motion to dismiss the First Amendment claim on the comparability point, but it dismissed the appeal as to two other questions, whether Utah's law contains individualized exemptions that would trigger stricter review and the group's Fourth Amendment claim over the seizure, and sent the first of those back to Judge Parrish. It also "expressed no opinion" on a separate preliminary injunction that rests on Utah's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, enacted in 2024, because the state did not appeal that order. Jensen's attorney, Tanner Bean, told Courthouse News after the ruling that "the best claim is still in district court." As of October 5, prosecutors had not refiled charges.

Monday's step is the next move in that fight. Law360 reported at 1:12 p.m. Eastern on October 19 that the church's founder "asked the Tenth Circuit for en banc rehearing" of the decision, arguing that it violates the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. An en banc rehearing, if granted, would put the case before the full court rather than a three-judge panel; such petitions are granted rarely. The Law360 report is behind a paywall, and we have not seen the petition itself; the Tenth Circuit's docket for No. 25-4115 is the primary record. We will update this story when the court acts.

What it means spiritually

Facts above, interpretation here. Every tradition that has used a plant or fungus as sacrament has had to answer the same question the Tenth Circuit asked: what makes this religion rather than drug use? The court's answer was procedural, about supervision and reporting, and it is worth hearing that answer without flinching. The medical centers Utah permits have protocols; a ceremony in Provo, in the law's eyes, does not. Whatever one thinks of the ruling, it names the thing that separates a practice from a party: structure, accountability, someone watching the door. The oldest ceremonies had all three before any statute asked for them.

The deeper tension does not go away with a petition. A religion that defines itself by an experience the state calls a crime is living on the same fault line as the peyote cases of the 1990s and the ayahuasca churches of the 2000s, and that line has moved before. Our Marsh Chapel story is the history of how it moved once. For the practitioner reading this in a state where none of it is legal, the honest counsel is the same as ever: the sacrament is not the point; the attention is, and attention is lawful everywhere.

What you can do now

• Read the opinion, not the summaries. It is 2026's clearest statement by a federal appeals court on religious psilocybin, and most of it is about which court decides, not whether the religion is real. The PDF is linked above.
• Know your own state's line. Oregon licenses supervised psilocybin services; Colorado regulates "natural medicine"; Utah permits experimental medical use only. Our Oregon report covers what licensed centers actually do.
• Separate the ceremony from the substance in your own practice. Intention, a set space, a sitter and a close are what the oldest rites share, and none of them requires anything a court can seize.
• Watch two dates. The Tenth Circuit's order on the petition, and whatever Judge Parrish does with the individualized-exemptions question on remand. Both will be on the public docket.
• Be careful with "church" claims online. No ruling in this case makes psilocybin legal anywhere, and anyone selling it under a religious label is not covered by it.

Pairs well with: Sagrada Madre Sacred Incense Collection, four blends for the kind of ceremony no statute has a view on.

Sources

• Law360, "Psilocybin Church Leader Asks 10th Circ. To Redo Ruling," by Mike Curley, October 19, 2026, 1:12 PM EDT (founder asks for en banc rehearing; First Amendment argument). law360.com (subscription)
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Jensen v. Utah County, No. 25-4115, published opinion filed October 5, 2026, Bacharach, J., joined by Ebel and Federico, JJ. (parties, facts, holdings, disposition). PDF via Courthouse News
• Courthouse News Service, "10th Circuit says court should not have blocked Utah psychedelic mushroom prosecution," by Quinn Welsch, October 5, 2026 (raid 2024, injunction 2025, Bean quote, charges not refiled). courthousenews.com
• Utah Code § 58-37-309 (experimental psilocybin use by qualified healthcare systems), as described in the opinion.

The spiritual interpretation in this article is the editorial voice of Desire Diaries, clearly separated from the reported facts, and is not scientifically proven. This article is not legal advice.