Supreme Court Sides With US and Blocks Rio Grande Water Deal (2)

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the US government’s challenge to a consent decree among Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, forcing those states to rethink how they’ll divvy up water in the Rio Grande River Basin to account for federal interests.

The ruling also gives the federal government greater control over agreements struck between or among states, including interstate water compacts.

“The United States just picked up a lot of power,” said Robin Kundis Craig, an environmental law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

In a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the ...