March 21, 2023
THE JACKSON/GORSUCH AXIS:
Barrett May Be Pivotal in Navajo Nation Water Dispute With US (Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, 3/20/23, Bloomberg Law)
Eight justices at argument on Monday appeared evenly divided in the dispute over the Colorado River with conservative Neil Gorsuch and his liberal colleagues lining up together.Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Gorsuch, and Ketanji Brown Jackson leaned toward tribal water access claims. Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh appeared to side with the Biden administration, which is backed by Arizona and other states.Barrett, a conservative, didn't have a track record in tribal cases on the Chicago-based US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit where she sat before becoming a justice in 2020. She's since ruled both for and against tribal interests, and suggested the possibility of a narrow win for the Navajo in this case.
If textualism means anything it is that the words of the treaty are dispositive
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 21, 2023 5:19 AM