Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1484_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 41

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ARIZONA v. NAVAJO NATION 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

cannot  lawfully  divert  them  elsewhere—just  as  a  lawyer 
cannot dispose of a client’s property entrusted to him with-
out  permission.  And  the  only  way  to  ensure  compliance
with that obligation is to give the Tribe just what they re-
quest—an assessment of the water rights the federal gov-
ernment holds on the Tribe’s behalf. 

III 
The Court does not dispute most of this.  It agrees that 
the Navajo enjoy “water rights implicitly reserved to accom-
plish the purpose of the reservation.”  Ante, at 2.  It agrees
that the United States cannot lawfully interfere with those 
water rights.  Ante, at 2, 6, 7.  And it leaves open the possi-
bility that the Navajo “may be able to assert the interests 
they claim in water rights litigation.”  Ante, at 12.  Really,
the Court gets off the train just one stop short.  It insists 
(and then repeats—again and again) that the United States
owes no “affirmative duty” to the Navajo with respect to wa-
ter,  and  therefore  does  not  need  to  take  any  “affirmative
steps” to help the Tribe on that score.  Ante, at 2, 6–13.  This 
reasoning reflects three errors. 

A 

The Court begins by misapprehending the nature of the 
Navajo’s complaint.  Though it never quite cashes out what
the  phrase  “affirmative  steps”  means,  the  Court  appears
concerned that allowing this complaint to proceed could re-
sult in a court order requiring the United States to “buil[d] 
pipelines,  pumps,  wells,  or  other  water  infrastructure.” 
Ante, at 2, 6, 7.  More than that, the Court worries that—if 
a lower court finds that the United States has any water-
related  responsibilities  to  the  Tribe—the  federal  govern-
ment might even eventually find itself on the hook to “farm 
land,  mine  minerals,  harvest  timber,  build  roads,  or  con-
struct  bridges  on  the  reservation.”    Ante,  at  13;  see  also 
ante, at 9.