Supreme Court of the United States
State of Arizona v. State of California Bill of Complaint
October 10, 2000531 U.S. 1
Summary
The Court held that the United States and the Quechan Tribe were not barred from seeking additional water rights for disputed Fort Yuma Reservation boundary lands. The State parties forfeited their preclusion defense by failing to raise it despite earlier opportunities, and the later consent judgment did not establish issue preclusion because the underlying ownership issue was neither litigated nor decided and the settlement covered mutually exclusive theories. The Court approved settlements concerning the Fort Mojave and Colorado River Reservations and remanded the Fort Yuma claims for determination on the merits.