Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 30, 1982 Decided July 2, 1982
Full case name	Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, Attorney General
Citations	458 U.S. 941 (more) 102 S. Ct. 3456; 73 L. Ed. 2d 1254; 1982 U.S. LEXIS 13
Holding
The Nebraska statute forbidding commercial exportation of water from Nebraska was unconstitutional in that it violated the dormant commerce clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Stevens, joined by Burger, Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Art. I § 8

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

See also[edit]

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 458

Further reading[edit]

• Barnett, B. M. (1984). "Mixing Water and the Commerce Clause: the Problems of Practice, Precedent, and Policy in Sporhase v. Nebraska". Natural Resources Journal. 24 (1): 161–194. ISSN 0028-0739.
• Chan, A. H. (1989). "To Market or Not to Market: Allocation of Interstate Waters". Natural Resources Journal. 29 (2): 529–547. ISSN 0028-0739.
• Greenberg, A. D. (1983). "Sporhase v. Nebraska: The Muddying of Commerce Clause Waters". Ecology Law Quarterly. 11 (2): 215–239. ISSN 0046-1121.
• McCormick, Zachary (2007). "Institutional Barriers to Water Marketing in the West". Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 30 (6): 953–961. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1994.tb03343.x.

External links[edit]

• Text of Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, 458 U.S. 941 (1982) is available from: CourtListener  Findlaw  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio)