CARSON CITY, Nev. (Legal Newsline) — Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt announced Aug. 10 that he is leading a 10-state coalition of attorneys general in a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending state rights in regulating groundwater.
According to Laxalt, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrongly concluded that the federal government has rights to groundwater that preempt state-law regulations. Laxalt believes this decision negatively impacts western states such as Nevada.
“Western states like Nevada are particularly impacted by the current uncertainty of groundwater rights created by this recent Ninth Circuit decision,” Laxalt said.
“By filing this brief, my office encourages the Supreme Court to take the necessary steps to clarify the states’ groundwater rights and to ensure Nevada’s best interests are being protected from unnecessary and unwarranted federal interference. As I have consistently demonstrated throughout my tenure as Nevada’s attorney general, my office stands ready to defend our state from unlawful federal overreach regardless of the source.”
Joining Nevada in the brief are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.