US Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights dispute.
The US Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation's request for the federal government to secure water rights for its reservation in the West. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said that an 1868 peace treaty between the US and the Navajos does not require the federal government to take any "affirmative steps" to secure rights on behalf of the tribe to water from the Colorado River. Kavanaugh added that it is better for Congress and the president to "enact appropriations laws and to otherwise update federal law as they see fit in light of the competing contemporary needs for water."
