The majority in the 5-4 decision wrote that the treaty did not require the country to take “affirmative steps” to secure water for the tribe.
The 1868 peace treaty in question established a reservation for the Navajo and granted them the right to use needed water on the reservation.
The tribe has argued that under that treaty, the U.S. has the responsibility to secure water for the tribe, which is largely situated in the Colorado River Basin. The area’s water supply has dwindled in recent years as the western U.S. faces a historic drought.
The majority opinion, from all of the court’s conservative justices except Neil Gorsuch, called the tribe’s interpretation of the treaty “incorrect.”
“In the Tribe’s view, the 1868 treaty imposed a duty on the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajo. With respect, the Tribe is incorrect,” read the opinion, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
On the other hand, Gorsuch, joined by the court’s three liberal justices, wrote that the the Navajo suit “more than suffices to state a claim for relief.”
“As they did at Bosque Redondo, they must again fight for themselves to secure their homeland and all that must necessarily come with it,” Gorsuch wrote, referring to the attempted ethnic cleansing of the Navajo in the 1860s.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
