Opinion ID: 109465
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: State Law

Text: Petitioners in both cases argue that the Federal Government must perfect its implied water rights according to state law. They contend that the Desert Land Act of 1877, 19 Stat. 377, 43 U. S. C. § 321, and its predecessors [8] severed nonnavigable water from public land, subjecting it to state law. That Act, however, provides that patentees of public land acquire only title to land through the patent and must acquire water rights in nonnavigable water in accordance with state law. California Oregon Power Co. v. Beaver Portland Cement Co., 295 U. S. 142, 162 (1935); see Morreale, Federal-State Conflicts Over Western WatersA Decade of Attempted Clarifying Legislation, 20 Rutgers L. Rev. 423, 432 (1966). [9] This Court held in FPC v. Oregon, 349 U. S. 435, 448 (1955), that the Desert Land Act does not apply to water rights on federally reserved land. [10] The Cappaert petitioners argue that FPC v. Oregon, supra , must be overruled since, inter alia, the Court was unaware at the time that case was decided that there was no longer any public land available for homesteading. However, whether or not there was public land available for homesteading in 1955 is irrelevant to the meaning of the 1877 Act. The Desert Land Act still provides that the water rights of those who received their land from federal patents are to be governed by state law. That there may be no more federal land available for homesteading does not mean the Desert Land Act now applies to all federal land. Since the Act is inapplicable, determination of reserved water rights is not governed by state law but derives from the federal purpose of the reservation; the fact that the water rights here reserved apply to nonnavigable rather than navigable waters is thus irrelevant. Since FPC v. Oregon, supra , was decided, several bills have been introduced in Congress to subject at least some federal water uses to state appropriation doctrines, but none has been enacted into law. The most recent bill, S. 28, 92d Cong., 1st Sess., was introduced on January 25, 1971, and reintroduced under the same number in the 93d Cong., 1st Sess., on January 4, 1973. See Morreale, supra. Federal water rights are not dependent upon state law or state procedures and they need not be adjudicated only in state courts; federal courts have jurisdiction under 28 U. S. C. § 1345 to adjudicate the water rights claims of the United States. [11] Colorado River Water Cons. Dist. v. United States, 424 U. S., at 807-809. The McCarran Amendment, 66 Stat. 560, 43 U. S. C. § 666, did not repeal § 1345 jurisdiction as applied to water rights. 424 U. S., at 808-809. Nor, as Nevada suggests, is the McCarran Amendment a substantive statute, requiring the United States to perfect its water rights in the state forum like all other land owners. Brief for Nevada 37. The McCarran Amendment waives United States sovereign immunity should the United States be joined as a party in a state-court general water rights' adjudication, Colorado River Water Cons. Dist. v. United States, supra, at 808, and the policy evinced by the Amendment may, in the appropriate case, require the United States to adjudicate its water rights in state forums. Id., at 817-820.