page_title: BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States
section_title: Dissenting opinion
hierarchical_section_title: BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States / Opinion of the court / Dissenting opinion
caption_attribution_description: John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court justice.
context_page_description: BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States, 541 U.S. 176, is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided sand and gravel are not "valuable minerals" reserved to the United States Government under the Pittman Underground Water Act of 1919. The Court sided in a 6–3 decision with the petitioner, BedRoc Limited, and reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court. BedRoc Limited had removed sand and gravel from lands obtained under the Pittman Act, and the United States, the respondent, argued those were reserved to the U.S. Government under that law.
  William Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion, that relied on a textualist approach, and was joined by three justices. He argued sand and gravel were not considered "valuable minerals" in Nevada when the Pittman Act was passed in 1919. A concurring opinion was written by Clarence Thomas, and joined by another justice. Two justices joined John P. Stevens' dissenting opinion, that relied on legislative history and a previous decision of the Supreme Court.
context_section_description: Justice John P. Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion, that was joined by Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Stevens said the majority opinion depended entirely on the word "valuable", and he rejected this emphasis. He said the reservation of the Pittman Underground Water Act was meant to be the same as that of the Stock-Raising Homestead Act (SRHA).
  Stevens called it highly unlikely that Congress meant to make a distinction between the reservation of the Pittman Act and the one of the SRHA, as it would be illogical that Congress would have wanted a reservation to the sand and gravel in lands covered by the SRHA, but not to the sand and gravel in lands covered by the Pittman Act. Besides, Stevens referred to a House Committee Report which said section 8 of the Pittman Act contained the same reservation of minerals as the SRHA. Stevens criticized the majority opinion for ignoring the fact that Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc. already stated that a substance must be valuable to be a mineral. Moreover, he said "valuable minerals" and "minerals" were meant to be synonymous, as the Pittman Act contains the phrase "valuable minerals" twice and the words "minerals" and "mineral" without the word "valuable" eight times.
  Stevens did not rule out the possibility that the majority opinion in Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc. misinterpreted Congress' intention, but he said there was no reason to choose another assessment of the Congress' intention over the old one. Stevens criticized the majority opinion for not using legislative history in order to find the Congress' original intent, which could result into decisions based on personal preference. The majority argued looking at the legislative history was unnecessary because of the clear language of the Pittman Act.
caption: Justice John P. Stevens
exif: {}