The Supreme Court on Thursday dashed the hopes of the Navajo Nation for more running water. The justices, in a 5-4 decision, threw out a lower court ruling that held an 1868 treaty confining Navajos to their reservation came with an implied promise that they would have access to water. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the treaties that established the Navajo reservation did not come with such an affirmative promise. Justice Amy Coney Barrett cast a key vote for the majority, while Justice Neil M. Gorsuch dissented with the court’s three liberals. … Lawyers for Arizona, joined by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said the high court’s decrees have allocated the waters from the lower Colorado River, and it is too late for lawsuits that seek new rights to the same water.

Related articles: 

• Associated Press: Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case 
• Courthouse News Service: Tribe seeking Colorado River water rights spurned by high court
• NBC News: Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in water rights dispute