Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in water supply case
on Thursday ruled against the Navajo Nation, dismissing a lawsuit arguing that the federal government has the legal duty under treaties signed in the 1800s to develop a plan to provide the tribe with an adequate water supply.
The ruling was 5-4 against the Navajos with Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivering the opinion of the court. Justice Neil Gorsuch filed a dissenting opinion joined by the court바카라 게임 웹사이트s liberal justices.
The suit pitted the Navajo Nation against the U.S. government as well as a handful of western states that are concerned about water allocation.
바카라 게임 웹사이트In short, the 1868 treaty did not impose a duty on the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Tribe 바카라 게임 웹사이트 including the steps requested by the Navajos here, such as determining the water needs of the Tribe, providing an accounting, or developing a plan to secure the needed water,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Kavanaugh wrote.
The suit comes as water from the Colorado River is scarce and states located in the arid southwest are tangled in disputes concerning water allocation. The tribe claims that while the average person on the Navajo reservation uses seven gallons of water a day, the national average is 80 to 100 gallons.
The nation, which extends across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and lies within the drainage basin of the Colorado River, has signed two treaties with the United States. In 1868, the United States promised the tribe a permanent homeland.
Shay Dvoretzky, a lawyer for the Navajo Nation, told the Supreme Court: that the Navajos 바카라 게임 웹사이트made clear바카라 게임 웹사이트 that they understood the 바카라 게임 웹사이트promise of a permanent homeland바카라 게임 웹사이트 in the 1800s to include 바카라 게임 웹사이트adequate water for agriculture and raising livestock. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Hauled from miles away, water can cost up to twenty times more than it does in neighboring off-Reservation communities,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he argued.
He said the tribe is looking for its 바카라 게임 웹사이트fair share바카라 게임 웹사이트 of water through a "fair process."
바카라 게임 웹사이트A promise is a solemn duty, and the United States바카라 게임 웹사이트 duty is to see that the Nation has the water it needs and the United States promised,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said.
The U.S. government had argued the tribe did not have the legal right to make the claim because the treaties at issue did not create a right for the nation to sue the government over water.
Frederick Liu, an assistant to the Solicitor General, told the justices at oral arguments in March that the dispute is about 바카라 게임 웹사이트whether the United States owes the Navajo Nation a judicially enforceable affirmative duty to assess the tribe바카라 게임 웹사이트s water needs, develop a plan to meet them and then carry out that plan by building water supply infrastructure on the reservation.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트The answer to that question is no,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Liu said.