Wyoming v. Colorado

Wyoming v. Colorado
Wyoming v. Colorado
	Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 6–8, 1916; Reargued January 9–10, 1918; Reargued January 9–10, 1922; Decided June 5, 1922
Full case name	State of Colorado v. Wyoming
Citations	259 U.S. 419 (more) 42 S. Ct. 552; 66 L. Ed. 999; 1922 U.S. LEXIS 2492
Case history
Prior	In equity.
Subsequent	Petition for rehearing granted October 9, 1922, 260 U.S. 1. Motion to dismiss denied May 31, 1932, 286 U.S. 494.
Holding
	Colorado could divert a limited amount of water from an interstate stream system as long as it did not interfere with Wyoming's previously established (prior appropriation) right to the same stream system.
Court membership
	Chief Justice William H. Taft Associate Justices Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr.; William R. Day · Willis Van Devanter; Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds; Louis Brandeis · John H. Clarke
Case opinion
Majority	Van Devanter, joined by unanimous

Wyoming v. Colorado, 259 U.S. 419 (1922) is a set of court cases, all dealing with water distribution from the Laramie River. A petition for rehearing was granted, which revised the original decision.^[1] A motion to dismiss was later denied.^[2]

Background

When a dispute arises between two states, the case is filed for original jurisdiction with the United States Supreme Court. This is one of the very limited circumstances where the court acts with original jurisdiction, e.g. a trial court. In all other cases the Court acts as the highest level appellate court in the United States.

The state of Wyoming brought an action against the state of Colorado to prevent the diversion of a stream system. Wyoming claimed the doctrine of prior appropriation granted them superior rights to the stream water, as they claimed the water first, and that Colorado's proposed diversion would leave them with an insufficient supply of water.

Opinion of the Court

The Court upheld Wyoming's prior appropriation water rights, preventing Colorado's proposed diversion of the stream system as originally planned. However, the Court allowed Colorado to divert a lesser amount of water, as long as it did not interfere with Wyoming's prior water usage. After in depth fact-finding of the exact amount of water used by Wyoming, the court determined that Colorado could divert no more than 15,500 acre-feet (19,100,000 m³) per year of water from the interstate stream system.