Power and the Powerless

In a scathing dissent, Neil Gorsuch compared the Navajo Nation’s plight to the experience of ‘any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

  • The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.
  • Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent comparing the plight of the Navajos to waiting at the DMV.
  • The Navajo “have tried it all,” he wrote. “At each turn, they have received the same answer: ‘Try again.'”

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote an impassioned dissent comparing the Navajo Nation’s fight over water rights to the experience of “any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles.”

“The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another,” Gorsuch wrote.

The high court ruled 5-4 in Arizona v. Navajo Nation on Thursday that under an 1868 treaty, the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.

Specifically, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who delivered the majority opinion, argued that the Navajo Nation was asking the federal government to take “affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos.”