Gor­such begins to ‘regret’ giv­ing gov­ern­ment author­i­ty over Rio Grande water deal

Gorsuch begins to ‘regret’ giving government authority over Rio Grande water deal

The Supreme Court on Wednes­day heard argu­ments over the Biden administration‘s objec­tions to a Rio Grande water com­pact between three West­ern states, prompt­ing Jus­tice Neil Gor­such to quip that he’s com­ing to “regret” his 2018 rul­ing that said the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment had spe­cial inter­ests in the plan.
Dur­ing oral argu­ments in the case known as Texas v. New Mex­i­co and Col­orado, sev­er­al of the jus­tices expressed skep­ti­cism that the Supreme Court, which has juris­dic­tion in dis­putes between states, was the prop­er venue to resolve the Biden administration’s objec­tions to the water deal.
“You’re not a par­ty in the sense that you have some inter­est here oth­er than in admin­is­ter­ing the com­pact,” Gor­such told Jus­tice Depart­ment Assis­tant Solic­i­tor Gen­er­al Fred­er­ick Liu. “At the end of the day, it’s a com­pact between states that we’re adju­di­cat­ing here.”

Jus­tice Neil Gor­such (Wash­ing­ton Examiner/Graeme Jen­nings) | Graeme Jen­nings

The water dis­pute before the jus­tices on Wednes­day began in 2013 when Texas accus …