The Supreme Court seemed split Monday as it weighed a dispute involving the federal government and the Navajo Nation’s quest for water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.
The high court heard arguments Monday, March 20, 2023, in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe.Washington •
Raynelle Hoskie attaches a hose to a water pump to fill tanks in her truck outside a tribal office on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Ariz., on April 20, 2020. The high court heard arguments Monday, March 20, 2023, in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe.
Alito asked about “some of the real world impacts” of the decision and suggested he’d seen figures indicating that “per capita water on the Navajo Nation is greatly in excess of per capita water for residents of Arizona.” He pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.
A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, participating in the case via telephone because she wasn’t feeling well, said the government was making the argument that the Navajo Nation can’t do anything to force the government to protect its water rights, something she suggested would have been an “odd agreement” for the tribe to make.
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