Opinion ID: 456271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 6 The TRPC confers concurrent jurisdiction upon the courts of California, Nevada, and the United States in suits arising under the Compact. 4 The Attorney General contends that TRPA's action arises solely under state law and not under the Compact, and that the district court consequently erred in denying his motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We disagree. 7 The Attorney General concedes that the district court would have jurisdiction, in the absence of agreement by the parties, to determine which state open meeting provision imposes the greater requirements. Since both parties agree, however, that Nevada law controls, appellant argues that the sole remaining issue--viz, construction of Nevada's open meeting statute--is entirely a question of state law. 8 It is hardly novel, however, for Congress to direct that state law be used to fill the intertices of federal law. Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. 693, 701 & n. 11, 93 S.Ct. 1785, 1791 & n. 11, 36 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973) (citing, as examples, the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1346(b), 2671-80; Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. Secs. 1331-43; and provisions of the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 7, 11). Here, the law of the state imposing the greater requirements (which both the parties and district court agree is Nevada's) is expressly incorporated into the TRPC. Since congressional consent has transformed this compact into a law of the United States, League to Save Lake Tahoe v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 507 F.2d 517, 519 (9th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 974, 95 S.Ct. 1398, 43 L.Ed.2d 654 (1975), the dispute here arises under federal law, not solely under Nevada law. A suit to enjoin enforcement of a state law expressly incorporated in the TRPC, against a public body created by the TRPC, is a suit arising under the Compact. See C. Wright, The Law of Federal Courts 98 (4th ed. 1983); League to Save Lake Tahoe, 507 F.2d at 522.