Klamath Irrigation District v. United States Bureau of Reclamation, et al.

This is the second petition for certiorari arising from related cases in the Ninth Circuit, both of which concern water rights in Oregon’s Klamath River Basin and the continued vitality of the federal McCarran Amendment. The first petition seeks review of a ruling granting Native American tribes veto power over any federal proceeding to enforce state-adjudicated water rights. Pet. for Writ of Cert., Klamath Irrigation District v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation et al., Sup. Ct. Case No. 22-1116 (“Klamath I”). This second petition seeks review of a parallel ruling denying state courts prior exclusive jurisdiction to enforce water rights they have determined in ongoing in rem McCarran Amendment adjudication proceedings, if the federal government seeks removal based on its “federal obligations.” The federal government has innumerable obligations that intersect with adjudicated water rights. Thus, under the ruling here, general stream adjudications no longer comprehensively determine all state and federal “rights to the use of water” from a water source, and the federal government can remove virtually any water-rights enforcement proceeding to federal court. Once the proceeding reaches federal court, Klamath I allows any Native American tribe with an interest in the litigation to shut it down. Consequently, the combined effect of the Ninth Circuit’s rulings leaves water users in the American West no reliable forum to comprehensively determine and administer their water rights. This eviscerates the McCarran Amendment’s purpose of enabling water to be allocated in accordance with