Here are the materials in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior (D. Ariz.):
Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior
Navajo Sues Interior over Fee-to-Trust Notice Rules
Here is the complaint in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior (D. Ariz.):
Navajo Sues Interior over Judicial Funding
Here is the complaint in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior (D.D.C.):
Navajo Water Rights Trust Breach Case Dismissed
Here are the updated materials in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior (D. Arizona):
Third Amended Complaint materials
340 Utility and State Response
369 Utility and State Response
Prior posts here.
Update in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior (water rights case on remand)
Here:
2018-04-13 Doc 335 NN Mot Leave Intervene
2018-04-13 Doc 335-1 NN Memo in Support of Mot for Leave to Amend
2018-04-13 Doc 335-2 EX 1 – NN Proposed Third Amended Complaint
On remand from the Ninth Circuit, the Nation moves the district court for leave to file its third amended complaint, which restates the Nation’s claims for breach of trust (dismissal of the Nation’s NEPA claims was upheld). The appeals court gave short shrift to the argument by the US, adopted by the district court, that sovereign immunity barred the breach of trust claim, clarifying (consistent with the majority of circuits) that section 702 of the APA, as amended, is a broad waiver of that immunity for claims not seeking money damages.
While continuing to assert that the Secretary as water master for the mainstream of the Colorado River in the Lower Basin breached his fiduciary duties, including the duty of protection explicitly undertaken in the 1849 Treaty of Peace, in management decisions that failed to account for the needs and unquantified rights of the Navajo Nation for homeland purposes, the proposed amended complaint now focuses more particularly on the federal defendants’ historic failure to correct an omission in the Decree in Arizona v. California, omitting lands above Lake Mead, and inducing reliance on limited water supplies by others with rights junior to the Navajo Nation to the detriment of the Nation.
Ninth Circuit Restores Navajo Nation Trust Breach Claim in Colorado River Water Rights Matter
Here is the opinion in Navajo Nation v. Dept. of the Interior.
An excerpt:
The panel held that the Nation’s breach of trust claim was not barred by sovereign immunity, and remanded to the district court to consider the claim on its merits. The panel held that the broad waiver of sovereign immunity found in § 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) waived sovereign immunity for all non-monetary claims, and § 704 of the APA’s final agency action requirement constrained only actions brought under the APA. The panel concluded that the Nation’s breach of trust claim sought relief other than money damages, and the waiver of sovereign immunity in § 702 applied squarely to the claim.
Lower court materials here.
