Labrador Letter – Stockwater Victory

By Attorney General Raúl Labrador

Dear Friends,

Water rights in Idaho have been getting a lot of attention lately in the media. To our ranchers and farmers, this is a concern every single day, regardless of what makes the evening news. It’s a vastly complex topic with battles on every level of the law and government.

Last week we scored a significant victory over the Biden-Harris Department of Justice. We prevailed in a critical and complex lawsuit brought against Idaho related to our water rights, specifically for ranchers who use those water rights for the benefit of their livestock. Idaho law says that if stockwater rights aren’t used within five years, they can be forfeited. This applies to the federal government property as well.

Idaho’s stockwater law is the result of a decades-old negotiation called the Snake River Basin Adjudication – a legal and administrative process that began in 1987 to determine water rights between the State of Idaho, the Department of the Interior, and the Nez Perce Tribe. The final decree was signed in 2014 and provided legal certainty for recognized water rights, improved water management, environmental protections, and economic stability for users in the region.

Since the United States does not own or manage cattle herds, it seemed like a no-brainer that the Federal government wouldn’t be able to retain stockwater rights on public land. In 2007, the Idaho Supreme Court rendered a decision where a rancher could establish a water right on federal land if the rancher’s livestock were drinking the water. The Court clarified that the federal agency simply managing the public lands for grazing was not considered a “beneficial use” of the water as required.

However, with frustrating consistency, the Justice Department sued in 2022 to block application of Idaho’s forfeiture laws to any stockwater rights the United States had acquired, under Idaho law, for watering livestock on millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands. This suit came a full decade after they signed the Snake River Basin Adjudication agreement.

You and I know all too well that water is life in Idaho. No water means no agriculture, no irrigation, no crops, no cattle, no sheep, no growth, no industry, and no recreation. If you control the water, you control the economy and ultimately control the people. The federal government knows that too, and it’s not unreasonable to question their motives, especially given their laser-focus on attacking Idaho’s laws and sovereignty as of late. We defend water right decrees and our water laws for the very survival of our state.

Following the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision, the Idaho Legislature enacted a series of statutes, including one that provided a forfeiture process for all stockwater rights—including those owned by the federal government. These statutory changes triggered a federal constitutional challenge by the Department of Justice, arguing Idaho’s laws exceeded the authority granted by the Court’s ruling.

I am pleased to tell you that the U.S. District Court agreed with Idaho and those statutes pertaining to stockwater forfeiture were upheld. Idaho’s stockwater laws pertaining to forfeiture were upheld and the ranchers that graze on public lands have access to stockwater protected. While the Court enjoined three other statutes on grounds that they discriminate against the federal government, those statutes have nothing to do with water right forfeiture, and have never been applied to the United States, as the Court itself recognized.

I’m sure the federal government and its army of bureaucrats will be back with more fantastical plans to control Idaho’s water and, by extension, its people. But we will be ready to defend our laws and send them packing. Until then, vigilance is always the best course of action. Be especially wary when the government starts talking about their “rights” to anything. People have rights. Government has the duty to protect and preserve those rights for the people, not take them away.

Best regards,