Court Opinion

ID: 9429327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:26.962989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:18.910410
License: Public Domain

*572Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
In Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, 424 U. S. 800 (1976), this Court recognized a narrow rule of abstention governing controversies involving federal water rights. We stated that in light of “the virtually unflagging obligation of the federal courts to exercise the jurisdiction given them,” id., at 817, “[o]nly the clearest of justifications,” id., at 819, will warrant abstention in favor of a concurrent state proceeding. Substantially for the reasons set forth in Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion, I believe that abstention is not appropriate in these cases. Unlike the federal suit in Colorado River, the suits here are brought by Indian Tribes on their own behalf. These cases thus implicate the strong congressional policy, embodied in 28 U. S. C. §1362, of affording Indian tribes a federal forum. Since § 1362 reflects a congressional recognition of the “great hesitancy on the part of tribes to use State courts,” S. Rep. No. 1507, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1966), tribes which have sued under that provision should not lightly be remitted to asserting their rights in a state forum. Moreover, these cases also differ from Colorado River in that the exercise of federal jurisdiction here will not result in duplicative federal and state proceedings, since the District Court need only determine the water rights of the Tribes. I therefore cannot agree that this is one of those “exceptional” situations justifying abstention. 424 U. S., at 818.