Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 448.0

Cite as: 558 U. S. 256 (2010) 

287 

Opinion of Roberts, C. J. 

interests in water  of “all” their citizens,  including Duke En­
ergy  and  CRWSP.  345  U. S.,  at  372–373.  An  interest  is 
“not properly represented” by a State, id., at 373, when it is 
not a sovereign interest but instead a parochial one, such as 
the  interests  held  to  justify  intervention  in  the  cases  on 
which the majority relies.  See supra, at 283. 

The  majority  also  pays  little  heed  to  the  practical  con­
straints  on  this  Court’s  original  jurisdiction.  It  is  hard  to 
see  how  the  arguments  the  Court  accepts  today  could  not 
also  be  pressed  by  countless  other  water  users  in  either 
North or South Carolina.  Under the Court’s analysis, I see 
“no  practical  limitation  on  the  number  of  citizens,  as  such, 
who  would  be  entitled  to  be  made  parties.”  New  Jersey  v. 
New  York,  supra,  at  373.  To  the  extent  intervention  is  al­
lowed  for  some  private  entities  with  interests  in  the  water, 
others who also have an interest will feel compelled to inter­
vene as well—and we will be hard put to refuse them.  See 
Utah v.  United States, 394 U. S., at 95–96 (denying interven­
tion  to  a  corporation  that  sought  to  quiet  its  title  to  land 
because,  “[i]f  [it  were]  admitted,  fairness  would  require  the 
admission  of  any  of  the  other  120  private  landowners  who 
wish to quiet their title . . . , greatly increasing the complex­
ity  of  this  litigation”).  An  equitable  apportionment  action 
will take on the characteristics of an interpleader case, with 
all  those  asserting  interests  in  the  limited  supply  of  water 
jostling for their share like animals at a waterhole.  And we 
will  ﬁnd  ourselves  in  a  “quandary  whereby  we  must  opt 
either to pick and choose arbitrarily among similarly situated 
litigants  or  to  devote  truly  enormous  portions  of  our  ener­
gies  to  [original]  matters.”  Ohio  v.  Wyandotte  Chemicals 
Corp., 401 U. S., at 504. 

Allowing nonsovereign entities to intervene as parties will 
inevitably  prolong  the  resolution  of  this  and  other  equita­
ble  apportionment  actions,  which  already  take  considerable 
time.  Intervenors  do  not  come  alone—they  bring  along 
more issues to decide, more discovery requests, more excep­