Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/605

 502US2$28D 02-10-99 15:12:54 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 437 (1992)

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Opinion of the Court

Article III, § 2, cl. 2, of the United States Constitution provides this Court with original jurisdiction in all cases “in which a State shall be a Party.” Congress has seen fit to designate that this Court “shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States.” 28 U. S. C. § 1251(a). “In order to constitute a proper ‘controversy’ under our original jurisdiction, ‘it must appear that the complaining State has suffered a wrong through the action of the other State, furnishing ground for judicial redress, or is asserting a right against the other State which is susceptible of judicial enforcement according to the accepted principles of the common law or equity systems of jurisprudence.’ ” Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U. S. 725, 735–736 (1981) (quoting Massachusetts v. Missouri, 308 U. S. 1, 15 (1939)); see also New York v. Illinois, 274 U. S. 488, 490 (1927). We are quite sure that Wyoming’s submission satisfies this test. We agree with the Master’s conclusion, arrived at after consideration of all the facts submitted to him, that Wyoming clearly had standing to bring this action. The Master observed: “The effect of the Oklahoma statute has been to deprive Wyoming of severance tax revenues. It is undisputed that since January 1, 1987, the effective date of the Act, purchases by Oklahoma electric utilities of Wyoming-mined coal, as a percentage of their total coal purchases, have declined. . . . The decline came when, in response to the adoption of the Act, those utilities began purchasing Oklahoma-mined coal. The coal that, in the absence of the Act, would have been sold to Oklahoma utilities by a Wyoming producer would have been subject to the tax when extracted. Wyoming’s loss of severance tax revenues ‘fairly can be traced’ to the Act. See Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U. S. 725, 736 (1981) (quoting Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights