Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Questions for Scott McElroy <br /> <br />Question: In light of the recent Wyoming decision, does this cause <br />some kind of set back to what you have just talked about? Or, how <br />long do you think it is going to take the federal courts to reverse <br />that decision? <br /> <br />McElroy: The question was, how does the recent Wyoming Supreme Court <br />decision affect my evaluation of what is going on in terms of tribal <br />control of tribal waters. <br />That is a good question. The Wyoming decision was wrong, of <br />course, in my view, but I am not on the Supreme Court. In reality, <br />as I read that decision, it is tied very closely, although not very <br />well articulated, to the Wyoming court's earlier decision about the <br />nature of the tribal rights. I think it is a pretty fact-bound <br />situation that they have presented. Their analysis of the law is <br />stated in a very general sense and conflicts with some of what I have <br />said today. I do not think that it is what the u.s. Supreme Court <br />would decide if it was confronted with the same issue. The situation <br />is a very difficult one and the court had a very difficult problem in <br />front of it. The court set out to resolve the problem it was facing <br />in terms of injury from the in-stream flow uses that the tribes wished <br />to have. I do not think you can look at it as a general approach to <br />how the issues ought to be resolved. I think that you have to look <br />at the problem that was there and you have to look at what the Wyoming <br />Supreme Court had said in 1983. The court's decision is really a <br />reinterpretation of what it said before. <br /> <br />49 <br />