[VIDEO] The Price of an Aging Infrastructure on the Environment
The Water Values Podcast - How Can We Resolve Water Conflicts?
What Happened? On June 21, 2024, the Supreme Court narrowly held that three states could not enter a consent decree to settle their interstate water dispute without the support of the intervening federal government. The...more
With the current term of the Supreme Court soon to end, the run of decisions in which the Justices have been unanimous or close to it is being displaced by the “tougher” ones, in which there is substantial disagreement....more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued five decisions today: United States v. Rahimi, No. 22-915: This Second Amendment case addresses the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which makes it a crime for an...more
B&D is pleased to present the final installment of our 2024 Litigation Look Ahead series. (Read part five covering the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act here.) In this edition, our...more
On June 22, 2023, the United States Supreme Court handed down its third decision regarding federal Indian law this term. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that the Navajo Treaty of 1868 does not require the United States to...more
The Majority Opinion - Last Thursday, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, the third Supreme Court Indian law decision in the last two weeks. Released on the heels of a major...more
In a highly unwelcome decision for Native tribes relying on treaties with the U.S. government, the U.S. Supreme Court held recently that the government’s general trust obligation to Navajo Nation does not require the federal...more
On June 22, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484, holding that the Federal government is not responsible for taking affirmative steps to help the Navajo Nation secure access to...more
On June 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484, limiting the federal government’s obligation to affirmatively secure water for federally recognized Indian tribes. The...more
On June 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484, holding that the federal government is not obligated to affirmatively secure access to water for the Navajo Nation....more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued four decisions today: Arizona v. Navajo Nation, No. 21-1484: This case considered the federal government’s obligations related to the Navajo Tribe’s access of the Colorado...more
With four decisions yesterday, the Court has now cut its backlog down to the mid-teens. And with decisions likely today as well, the Court is well on its way to clearing the docket as the term ends....more
After nearly a decade, the Texas Attorney General and the New Mexico Attorney General announced in October 2022 that Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado had reached an agreement over the distribution of water from the Rio Grande;...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in three cases: Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, No. 21-757: This case concerns the Patent Act’s requirement that a patent’s “specification shall contain a written...more
For more than a century, since Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), the Supreme Court has recognized that when the United States establishes a Native reservation, it impliedly reserves sufficient water rights to...more
In a landmark ruling signaling a new lens with which to view the treatment of interstate water allocation, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on November 22 in Mississippi v. Tennessee, et al., 595 U.S. ___ (Case No....more
In case you missed it while preparing for your Turkey dinner, on November 22, 2021, the United States Supreme Court decided 9-0 that the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine, which had prior to this decision been held to apply...more
The decision could complicate states’ ability to pursue groundwater natural resource damages actions. On November 22, 2021, the US Supreme Court held that equitable apportionment applies to a dispute between states about...more
In a unanimous decision this week, the United Stated Supreme Court denied Mississippi’s claim that the State of Tennessee was stealing Mississippi’s groundwater. The decision represents a first step in settling a years-long...more
On November 22, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mississippi v. Tennessee, holding that water in an underground aquifer that flows across State lines is subject to equitable apportionment between the States, in similar...more
Mississippi v. Tennessee, No. 143, Orig.: Mississippi brought an original action against Tennessee, seeking $615 million in damages for Tennessee’s pumping from the Middle Claiborne Aquifer, which lies beneath both States....more
Several decisions of interest were issued in the 2020 term, which stretched from October 2020 until early July 2021. This review will concentrate on environmental and administrative law cases....more
For decades, Florida blamed declining oyster harvests on the State of Georgia. And, for decades, Florida’s elected officials convinced the public they were not at fault. These theories were rejected, in total, by the United...more
On 1 April, the U.S. Supreme Court (the Court) put to rest the long-simmering dispute between Florida and Georgia over Georgia’s use of water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin (the Basin) that Florida...more
No April Fools’ joke here. The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in favor of the State of Georgia over a decades-long dispute with Florida over water consumption. Florida challenged Georgia’s...more