Citations 458 U.S. 941 (more) | Date decided 1982 | |
Full case name Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, Attorney General Majority Stevens, joined by Burger, Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell Dissent Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor People also search for Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc. | ||
Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, 458 U.S. 941 (1982), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that a Nebraska statute forbidding commercial exportation of water from Nebraska was unconstitutional in that it violated the dormant commerce clause.
The boundary between the states of Nebraska and Colorado passed through a farm owned by Sporhase. He drilled a well in Nebraska and used the water to irrigate his land on both sides of the boundary. Under the 11th Amendment, he could not sue the state of Nebraska in a federal district court; consequently his suit had to proceed in the state courts in Nebraska until he petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review it.
References
Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA