WSP07342 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

,- " . r , Colorado River Compact Symposium James S. Lochhead Page 4 the view that before formation of the union, the states were independent sovereigns, and surrendered only specific powers to the federal government. Under the tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, specific powers not so surrendered were retained. The power to compact was founded upon same principle as the power in the Supreme Court to settle controversies between the states, or between the United States and a state. These powers assume the respective sovereignty of the states and the federal government. Carpenter stated: "In other words, the States of the Union, by consent of Congress, have the same power to enter into compacts with each other as do independent nations~ upon all matters not delegated to the Federal Government. . , In carpenter's view, the states as sovereigns could, with the consent of Congress under the Compact Clause, agree to a perpetual allocation of water. Carpenter made his views known early on in the Compact negotiations. He proposed that the _Upper Basin never be subject to a claim of right by virtue of any future development in the Lower Basin, that by the operation of return flows and gravity the Lower Basin would get all the water it needed. He based his position on his legal theories of state sovereignty: When I shall speak of a State, I wish to be understood as not speaking merely of any individual within that State, but of the State as a sovereignty, including collectively all the individuals and all the property of its citizens as one would speak of a nation. Our Federal Union was founded and has since continued, upon the fundamental principle that every attribute of absolute sovereignty, not by express language or necessary implication, surrendered to the Federal Government by the Constitution, remains in the State. In other words, the States are each still independent and sovereign in all respects, except for those powers surrendered to the central Government -- the United States of America. * * * [U)nder the international theory, if it were possible for Colorado to make beneficial use of the waters of that river which rise within her territory and to wholly consume the same, if need be, it could legally deprive the lower river of that water with impunity, except only as to such part thereof as it might voluntarily yield. . In various cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States it has been laid down as a general rule that. . nevertheless there 4 Historical Memorandum.