Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/150orig_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 1

Cite as:  589 U. S. ____ (2020) 

1 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

ARIZONA v. CALIFORNIA 

ON MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A BILL OF COMPLAINT 

No. 150, Orig.  Decided February 24, 2020 

The motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied.
 JUSTICE  THOMAS,  with  whom  JUSTICE  ALITO  joins,  dis-

senting from denial of motion for leave to file complaint. 

Today the Court denies Arizona leave to file a complaint
against California.  Although we have discretion to decline 
review  in  other  kinds  of  cases,  see  28  U. S. C.  §§1254(1),
1257(a), we likely do not have discretion to decline review 
in cases within our original jurisdiction that arise between 
two or more States. 

The Constitution establishes our original jurisdiction in 
mandatory terms.  Article III states that, “[i]n all Cases . . . 
in which a State shall be [a] Party, the supreme Court shall 
have original Jurisdiction.”  §2, cl. 2 (emphasis added).  In 
this circumstance, “[w]e have no more right to decline the 
exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that
which is not given.”  Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 404 
(1821) (Marshall, C. J., for the Court).

Our  original  jurisdiction  in  suits  between  two  States  is
also “exclusive.”  §1251(a).  As I have previously explained, 
“[i]f this Court does not exercise jurisdiction over a contro-
versy between two States, then the complaining State has
no judicial forum in which to seek relief.”  Nebraska v. Col-
orado, 577 U. S. ___, ___ (2016) (opinion dissenting from de-
nial  of  motion  for  leave  to  file  complaint)  (slip  op.,  at  2). 
Denying leave to file in a case between two or more States 
is thus not only textually suspect, but also inequitable.

The  Court  has  provided  scant  justification  for  reading 
“shall” to mean “may.”  It has invoked its “increasing duties
with  the  appellate  docket,”  Arizona  v.  New  Mexico,  425