“Every American deserves their day in court. Every American is innocent until proven guilty. These are core values enshrined in our founding document – the United States Constitution.”
- John Garamendi
For Americans, the theory that everyone deserves their day in court is enshrined in our thoughts of the American judicial system and something we believe is protected by the Constitution of the United States. Whether you’re rich or poor, regardless of background, as a society we staunchly believe and hold close to our hearts the idea of every American being able to “have their day in court”. No one, not even the Federal government, is above the law.
However, if you happen to be a Klamath Basin irrigator, this is far from true.
Recently, the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA), the Klamath Drainage District (KDD), Shasta View Irrigation District as well the Klamath Irrigation District (KID) brought cases against the Bureau of Reclamation hoping for relief from the Bureau’s onerous and disastrous single-species management of water from Upper Klamath Lake. In their cases, Klamath Basin Tribes up and down the river declared they were necessary parties to be involved in these lawsuits, and once the courts agreed, declared sovereign immunity and called for the cases to be dismissed.
The result? The cases were dismissed. KWUA, KDD, Shasta View and KID were denied their days in court for a final decision on how the Bureau of Reclamation uses the stored water in Upper Klamath Lake in relation to appeasing the outdated demands of the Endangered Species Act.
However, for patrons of the Klamath Drainage District, it gets even worse.
In United States v. Klamath Drainage District, the United States on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation sued KDD for breach of contract. At the heart of the case, the Feds argued that by KDD using its Oregon state water rights, they were in breach of contract by taking any water on behalf of KDD patrons, even despite the fact that in the past the Bureau has encouraged and preferred that KDD exercise their state water right (a separate supplemental right in the name of the district only) in times of drought.
In examining the contracts, KDD found that the Bureau was in fact in breach and filed a countersuit. Sounds reasonable, right? Your government sues you for doing something it has always asked you to do, and you find that they’re not living up to the contract they signed, so you file a counterclaim.
However, if you’re the Federal government, you don’t have to give the citizens their day in court or their chance for justice. Instead, you proclaim “sovereign immunity” and that you cannot be sued without an express statutory waiver of immunity. You’ve read that correctly – on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the United States declared itself to be beyond reproach to the patrons of the Klamath Drainage District. Meanwhile, various Tribal entities and environmental groups continue to sue the Federal government.
There is a danger to the US Constitution when the Federal government decides to bully one group of citizens in this manner while exempting others. Doing so creates a special class of citizens that can do as they please while denying others justice. And while many hate the “slippery slope” argument, this action by the United States Federal government creates a path to stripping our citizenry of its rights. If actions like this are to stand, slowly and surely the right to your day in court will have been stripped by the very people sworn to protect and uphold those same rights.
The Federal government’s move to declare itself immune from suit by KDD patrons also sets up a situation where reasonable people are forced to make unreasonable choices. Our patrons have been trying to work with the Bureau of Reclamation to provide water for area refuges. Our patrons have been on the forefront of trying to help with sucker fish recovery and come up with solutions to clean water before it heads down the Klamath River. Our patrons have been touting the needs of the birds of the Pacific Flyway. In short, KDD patrons have been trying to foster an atmosphere of cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Federal government.
But the recent actions of the Federal government only work against this nature of our patrons to cooperate.
And the last thing we need in the Klamath Basin and the Klamath Project is less cooperation.
To say the Klamath Drainage District is dismayed by the Federal government and Bureau of Reclamation’s actions is mild. To be very frank, to see the cooperation we’ve been trying to provide, to see that actions they have encouraged us to take in the past are now seen as breaking a contract, and then to exempt themselves from being held accountable for their breaches of contract is infuriating.
We hope you will see the Feds’ actions as what they are – unconstitutional, against what our Founding Fathers envisioned for our nation, and dangerous to every American citizens’ rights.
