Gorsuch, of course, is a conservative himself, and not a mild one. That lineup of Justices is part of a new, curious story of Gorsuch’s emergence as something of a legal champion for Native Americans. Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by the three liberal Justices, which passionately vindicated the tribe’s rights. Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion, joined by four other conservative Justices, which peremptorily turned the Navajo away-another chapter in an old, sad story. Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado then intervened in an attempt to block that process. In light of the coming fight over the river’s water, the Navajo had sued the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies, asking for an accounting of what rights to that water the government held in trust for the tribe, under an 1868 treaty, and for a plan to manage those rights. The Colorado is drying up, because of drought and overuse, a situation that is inseparable from the climate crisis. The case involved the future division of the waters of the Colorado River-an issue of existential concern to millions of people across seven Western states, including a hundred and seventy thousand who live on the Navajo reservation. Navajo Nation et al., the Supreme Court dealt the tribe a serious blow. Last Thursday, in the case of Arizona et al.
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