The long, circuitous path of a lawsuit against the federal government for cutting off water during the crushing 2014 drought to farms and cities that rely on supplies from the Friant-Kern and Madera canals could lead all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. … Contractors who get their water from the Friant system sued alleging the federal government breached its contract and that it illegally took their property rights to the water without just compensation. In 2016, the case went to the Court of Federal Claims, which dismissed the Friant districts’ illegal taking argument. The court ruled that the United States, not the districts or their landowners, owns the water rights underlying the federal Central Valley Project project.