Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Department of the Interior, et al. v. Navajo Nation, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 19-17088 · judgment February 17, 2022
Before the decision, about 6.1× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a federal-government petitioner, counsel who has won certiorari before, and a Ninth Circuit decision below.
Question presented
Consolidated with 21-1484. Whether the federal government owes the Navajo Nation an affirmative, judicially enforceable fiduciary duty to assess and address the Navajo Nation's need for water from particular sources, in the absence of any substantive source of law that expressly establishes such a duty.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General
For respondent
Shay Dvoretzky
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Argument & decision
Argued March 20, 2023 — Frederick Liu · Rita P. Maguire · Shay Dvoretzky. Audio and transcript
Decided June 22, 2023. Opinion by Kavanaugh.
Proceedings
- Jul 24 2023Judgment issued.
- Jun 22 2023Judgment REVERSED. Kavanaugh, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas, Alito, and Barrett, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion. Gorsuch, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, JJ., joined. VIDED.
- Mar 20 2023Argued. For federal parties: Frederick Liu, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. For state parties: Rita P. Maguire, Phoenix, Ariz. For Navajo Nation: Shay Dvoretzky, Washington, D. C. VIDED.
- Feb 13 2023CIRCULATED
- Jan 31 2023SET FOR ARGUMENT on Monday, March 20, 2023. VIDED.
- Nov 04 2022Petition GRANTED. The petition for a writ of certiorari in No. 21-1484 is granted. The cases are consolidated, and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument.
- Nov 04 2022Because the Court has consolidated these cases for briefing and oral argument, future filings and activity in the cases will now be reflected on the docket of No. 21-1484. Subsequent filings in these cases must therefore be submitted through the electronic filing system in No. 21-1484. Each document submitted in connection with one or more of these cases must include on its cover the case number and caption for each case in which the filing is intended to be submitted. Where a filing is submitted in fewer than all of the cases, the docket entry will reflect the case number(s) in which the filing is submitted; a document filed in all of the consolidated cases will be noted as “VIDED.”
- Oct 31 2022DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/4/2022.
- Oct 13 2022Reply of petitioners Department of the Interior, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Oct 12 2022DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/28/2022.
- Sep 23 2022Brief of respondent Navajo Nation in opposition filed.
- Sep 23 2022Brief in support of petition from respondent Arizona, et al. filed.
- Jul 22 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including September 23, 2022, for all respondents.
- Jul 21 2022Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 18, 2022 to September 23, 2022, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jul 15 2022Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 18, 2022)
- Jun 08 2022Application (21A704) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until July 15, 2022.
- Jun 07 2022Application (21A704) to extend further the time from June 17, 2022 to July 15, 2022, submitted to Justice Kagan.
- May 10 2022Application (21A704) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until June 17, 2022.
- May 06 2022Application (21A704) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from May 18, 2022 to June 17, 2022, submitted to Justice Kagan.