Kennedy to sit out Wash, tribal fishing rights case

摘要

Justice Anthony Kennedy will not participate in a case that asks the Supreme Court to decide whether Washington state's management of drainage tunnels has violated 1850s-era tribal treaty rights. Kennedy recently realized that he had taken part in a prior iteration of the legal dispute while serving as a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a letter filed Friday by Supreme Court Clerk Scott Harris. Washington is appealing a 9th Circuit decision holding that its management of culverts — which allow water to flow under roads and other structures — violated the terms of treaties from 1854 and 1855 that guaranteed Northwestern tribes continued access to fishing off their reservations. The U.S. government and tribes contend that the culverts prevent mature salmon from returning to the sea as well as hinder juvenile salmon from moving downstream, among other restrictions.