Stuff I wrote elsewhere: original jurisdiction
Posted on | January 9, 2013 | 1 Comment
There’s a rich, historical elegance to the tradition of state-v-state lawsuits over interstate compacts. Because each of the US states is constitutionally sovereign, when they sue one another over water flowing down a river from one state to the next, the legal action begins and ends before the US Supreme Court – the court of “original jurisdiction”.
I am happy to report that I’ve got my own original jurisdiction case with the newly filed “Texas v New Mexico“:
Texas moved Tuesday to drag New Mexico before the U.S. Supreme Court, charging that New Mexico is mismanaging the Rio Grande in a way that deprives Texas farms and cities of water that rightly belongs to them.
The lawsuit alleges widespread groundwater pumping between Elephant Butte Reservoir and the New Mexico-Texas border that has effectively reduced flows in the river.
Related posts:
- Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: A Feud Over Lower Rio Grande Water Distribution
- Stuff I wrote elsewhere: New Mexico water law needs to catch up with reality
- Stuff I wrote elsewhere: trouble on the Rio Grande
- Stuff I wrote elsewhere: endangered species problem highlights deeper problems on the Rio Grande
- Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The “Festering Issue” of NM Domestic Wells
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January 14th, 2013 @ 3:58 pm
[...] 2013/01/09: JFleck: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: original jurisdiction [...]