Arizona v. Navajo Nation (599 U.S. 555)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 22, 2023 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
599 U.S. 555 · 143 S. Ct. 1804
Decided
June 22, 2023
Term
October Term 2022
Vote
5–4
Majority author
Justice Kavanaugh
Issue area
Civil Rights
Disposition
Reversed
Outcome
Petitioning party won
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

PRELIMINARY PRINT Volume 599 U. S. Part 1 Pages 555–599 OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE SUPREME COURT June 22, 2023 Page Proof Pending Publication REBECCA A. WOMELDORF reporter of decisions NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors. OCTOBER TERM, 2022 555 Syllabus ARIZONA et al. v. NAVAJO NATION et al. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit No. 21–1484. Argued March 20, 2023—Decided June 22, 2023* An 1868 peace treaty between the United States and the Navajo Tribe established the Navajo Reservation that today spans some 17 million acres, almost entirely in the Colorado River Basin of the western United States. The Federal Government's reservation of land for an Indian tribe implicitly reserves the right to use needed water from various sources—such as groundwater, rivers, streams, lakes, and springs—that arise on, border, cross, underlie, or are encompassed within the reserva- tion. See Winters v. United States, 207 U. S. 564 , 576–577. While the Tribe has the right to use needed water from the reservation's numerous water sources, the Navajos face the same water scarcity problem that many in the western United…

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