State of Nebraska v. States of Wyoming and Colorado (507 U.S. 584)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 20, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 507 U.S. 584 · 113 S. Ct. 1689
- Decided
- April 20, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Interstate Relations
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. In this original action we revisit the dispute among Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and the United States over water rights to the North Platte River. In 1945, this Court entered a decree establishing interstate priorities on the North Platte and apportioning the natural flow of one critical portion of the river during the irrigation season. Nebraska returned to the Court in 1986 seeking an order for enforcement of the decree and injunctive relief. A Special Master, appointed by the Court, has supervised pretrial proceedings and discovery since 1987. Before us now are the Special Master’s recommended dispositions of several summary judgment motions, together with exceptions filed to the Special Master’s reports. I The North Platte River rises in northern Colorado and flows through Wyoming into Nebraska, where it joins the South Platte River. The topology of the river and the history of its early development are described at length in the Court’s 1945 opinion. See Nebraska v. Wyoming, 325 U. S. 589, 592-599. In 1934, Nebraska, invoking this Court’s original jurisdiction under Article III, §2, of the Constitution, brought an action against Wyoming seeking an equitable apportionment of the North Platte. Colorado was impleaded as a defendant, and the United States intervened. After 11 years of litigation, the Court imposed…
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