United States v. District Court in and for County of Eagle

This case arises from the attempted joinder pursuant to 43 U.S.C. § 666 of the United States as a defendant in a proceeding in state court for the adjudication of water rights covering the Eagle River system in Colorado. Under § 666 (a) "[c]onsent is given to join the United States as a defendant in any suit (1) for the adjudication of rights to the use of water of a river system or other source, or (2) for the administration of such rights, where it appears that the United States [owns] or is in the process of acquiring water rights by appropriation under State law, by purchase, by exchange, or otherwise..." The United States contended that § 666 applies only to water rights that it had acquired under state law and does not constitute consent to have adjudicated in a state court the Government's reserved water rights arising from withdrawals of land from the public domain. Its objection was overruled by the trial court and the Colorado Supreme Court denied the Government's motion for a writ of prohibition.

Held: Section 666 (a) is an all-inclusive statutory provision that subjects to general adjudication in state proceedings all rights of the United States to water within a particular State's jurisdiction regardless of how they were acquired. Any conflict between adjudicated rights and reserved rights of the United States, if preserved in the state proceeding, can ultimately be reviewed in this Court. Pp. 522-526.

169 Colo. 555, 458 P. 2d 760, affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court. MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, though joining in the opinion, filed a concurring statement, post, p. 530.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kiechel argued the cause for the United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Griswold, Assistant Attorney General Kashiwa, Francis X. Beytagh, Jr., Edmund B. Clark, and Charles N. Woodruff.

Kenneth Balcomb argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Robert L. McCarty, George L. Zoellner, Don H. Sherwood, and Raphael J. Moses.

Briefs of amici curiae were filed by Gary K. Nelson, Attorney General, and Irving A. Jennings for the State of Arizona et al.; by Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, Walter S. Rountree, Assistant Attorney General, and David B. Stanton, Deputy Attorney General, for the State of California; by Duke W. Dunbar, Attorney General of Colorado, Lee Johnson, Attorney General of Oregon, Harvey Dickerson, Attorney General of Nevada, Robert M. Robson, Attorney General of Idaho, Robert L. Woodahl, Attorney General of Montana, and G. Kent Edwards, Attorney General of Alaska, for the States of Colorado et al.; by G.T. Blankenship, Attorney General, and W. Howard O'Bryan, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Oklahoma; by Vernon B. Romney, Attorney General, Robert B. Hansen, Deputy Attorney General, and Dallin W. Jensen, Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Utah; by Slade Gorton, Attorney General, and Charles B. Roe, Jr., and Henry W. Ipsen, Assistant Attorneys General, for the State of Washington; and by James E. Barrett, Attorney General, Sterling A. Case, Deputy Attorney General, and Jack R. Gage, Special Assistant Attorney General, for the State of Wyoming.