Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Klamath Irrigation District v. United States Bureau of Reclamation, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20-36009, 20-36020 · judgment September 8, 2022
Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, and counsel who has filed here before.
Question presented
“[N]o problem” in the American West is “more critical than that of scarcity of water.” Colo. River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 804 (1976). To address this critical problem, Congress created an all-inclusive regime to ensure water is fairly allocated among all users claiming a right to water in a particular source. Under this regime, the responsibility to comprehensively adjudicate water rights falls to the States, which hold complex proceedings that often last decades and settle the rights of hundreds of users. These state adjudications include the federal government, whose sovereign immunity has been waived for that express purpose under the McCarran Amendment. 43 U.S.C. § 666(a). The United States’ waiver of sovereign immunity extends not just to its own water rights, but to reserved water rights the government holds on behalf of Native American tribes. Colo. River, 424 U.S. at 811. Given “the ubiquitous nature of Indian water rights” in the West, id., the Colorado River rule is a crucial feature of the state-federal water rights regime. The rule ensures all water rights in a water system can be adjudicated in a single proceeding, resulting in decrees that conclusively determine how much water each rights-holder can use and the priority of each right during shortages. The decision below tears a hole in this regime. Applying circuit precedent the United States itself believes to be incorrect and refuses to defend, the Ninth Circuit invented a rule under which one particular set of parties, Native American tribes, can
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Frederick Richard Yarger
Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell LLP
For respondent
Shay Dvoretzky
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Proceedings
- Oct 30 2023Petition DENIED.
- Oct 11 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/27/2023.
- Oct 09 2023Reply of petitioner Klamath Irrigation District filed. (Distributed)
- Sep 27 2023Brief of Federal Respondents in opposition filed.
- Sep 27 2023Brief of respondents The Klamath Tribes and the Hoopa Valley Tribe in opposition filed.
- Sep 19 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including September 27, 2023, for all respondents.
- Sep 18 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response from September 20, 2023 to September 27, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- Aug 15 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including September 20, 2023, for all respondents.
- Aug 14 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 21, 2023 to September 20, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jul 11 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including August 21, 2023, for all respondents.
- Jul 07 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 14, 2023 to August 21, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 31 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 14, 2023, for all respondents.
- May 31 2023Letter pursuant to Rule 12.6 from counsel for respondents Shasta View Irrigation District, et al. filed.
- May 30 2023Motion of respondent Hoopa Valley Tribe to extend the time to file a response from June 14, 2023 to July 14, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- May 11 2023Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 14, 2023)
- Apr 03 2023Application (22A862) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until May 11, 2023.
- Mar 30 2023Application (22A862) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 11, 2023 to May 11, 2023, submitted to Justice Kagan.