High court’s tie vote upholds loan bias ruling
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has issued its first tie vote since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, leaving in place a lower court ruling that barred two Missouri women from suing a bank for loan discrimination.
The justices on Tuesday divided 4-4 in a case that considered whether the women could bring claims under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act after a bank required them to guarantee their husbands’ business loans. The law protects loan applicants from bias based on marital status.
Lower courts ruled that the law covers only those who apply for credit and not those who guarantee to secure the debt.
The women argued that signing as guarantors made them both responsible to repay the loans and put their credit at risk.
Court upholds award against Tyson Foods
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled for more than 3,000 workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. pork-processing plant in Iowa in a pay dispute with the company.
The justices voted 6-2 on Tuesday to reject new limits Tyson asked them to impose on the ability of workers to band together to challenge pay and workplace issues.
Instead, the court upheld a $5.8 million judgment against the Springdale, Arkansas-based company for not paying employees for time spent putting on and taking off protective work clothes and equipment before wielding sharp knives in slaughtering and processing animals.
High court sides with Indian tribe in tax dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says a Nebraska town is within the boundaries of an Indian reservation and subject to a tribal tax on liquor sales from local businesses.
The justices on Tuesday ruled unanimously that Congress did not diminish the Omaha Indian Reservation in 1882 when it allowed the Omaha Tribe to sell portions of the reservation to non-Indians.
The tribe began subjecting retailers in the town of Pender to a newly-amended ordinance in 2006. It imposed a 10 percent sales tax on liquor sales.
Nebraska officials argued that 98 percent of the town was non-Indian and the tribe had not asserted jurisdiction over the area for more than 100 years.
The court in an opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas upheld lower court rulings in favor of the tribe.
Moose hunter wins round over hovercraft use
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a hunter who uses his hovercraft to track moose along Alaska’s Nation River.
The court on Tuesday unanimously threw out a lower court ruling that upheld enforcement of National Park Service rules banning the use of hovercraft on the river when it runs through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion for the court is a victory for hunter John Sturgeon, who has hunted moose in Alaska for nearly 40 years and uses a hovercraft to access shallow parts of the river.
But Roberts said lower courts need to sort out other issues in the case.
Court rules on water-rights fight between states
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in Monday on a long-running water-rights fight between Wyoming and Montana, ruling that Wyoming shorted its neighbor to the north on Tongue River water for just two of the 15 years Montana had claimed.
The judgment by the nation’s high court upholds the conclusion by a court-appointed special master that Wyoming is liable to Montana for reducing the volume of water available in the river at the state line in 2004 and 2006. The court ordered the case back to the special master to determine damages and any other legal relief owed to Montana.
The justices ruled for Wyoming in claims made by Montana for 13 other years dating back to 1981.
Ranchers and farmers in both states depend on the Tongue River, which flows north from Wyoming and eventually joins the Yellowstone River. Montana sued in 2007, arguing that Wyoming for years had broken a 1950s-era water compact by allowing irrigators and small reservoir owners to take too much water from the Tongue.
The Supreme Court took jurisdiction over the dispute between states and appointed Barton Thompson Jr., a Stanford University law professor, as special master to preside over the lawsuit.
The court ruled Wyoming owed Montana for a total of 1,356 acre feet of water in 2004 and 2006. That’s a relatively small amount for a river where 313,000 acre feet of water flows at the state line in an average year, according to Wyoming attorneys.
An acre foot is about 325,000 gallons. The state previously offered Montana $36,000 in compensation for the lost water.
“This is a good decision from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead spokesman David Bush said. “The governor hopes to have resolution on this matter soon.”
However, Montana will be seeking money and an order that will ensure Wyoming doesn’t short the state in the future, state officials said.
“Montana has believed all along that appropriate injunctive relief to prevent future violations by Wyoming was a critical component of the lawsuit,” Attorney General Tim Fox said in a statement. “Montana and Wyoming are neighbors sharing the resource, and a defined path forward as to how that sharing will occur is key to productivity on both sides of the border.”
Representatives for the two states had been in talks on how the Yellowstone River Water Compact will be administered in the future, but negotiations were on hold pending action by the Supreme Court, Fox spokeswoman Anastasia Burton said.
