Supreme Court Rejects Navajo Nation Bid to Secure Water (3)

The US Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation in its bid to secure water in the drought-stricken southwest.

In deciding 5-4 on Thursday that the federal government doesn’t need to satisfy the tribe’s access claim, the justices reversed a lower court ruling that allowed a Navajo Nation lawsuit over Colorado River water to move ahead.

The Navajo said the US is on the hook to help it access water under a peace treaty that returned the tribe to its ancestral lands and promised to provide them with a “permanent home.”

Over dissent from Justice Neil Gorsuch and the court’s ...