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United States v. New Mexico

438 U.S. 696 · 1978 · Supreme Court of the United States

Holding

In setting aside the Gila National Forest, the United States impliedly reserved water from the Rio Mimbres only for the primary purposes of the reservation under the 1897 Organic Act (preserving timber and securing favorable water flows), not for secondary uses such as recreation, aesthetics, wildlife preservation, or stockwatering, for which water must be acquired under state law like any other appropriator.

"only where necessary to preserve the timber in the forest" — Syllabus, United States v. New Mexico, 438 U.S. 696 (1978)

Why it matters for settlements

Imposed the primary-purposes limit on implied reserved rights, the framework against which tribal reservation purposes (and therefore tribal quantifications) are argued.

Read the primary record (courtlistener.com)

No. 77-510. Decided 1978-07-03, Rehnquist, J. The opinion restates the Cappaert cap: reserved water is 'only that amount of water necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation, no more.' Same CourtListener HTML interstitial caveat.

Sources

CourtListener search API (citation, date, court, canonical URL) (courtlistener.com, retrieved 2026-09-01)
Justia (syllabus and opinion text; cross-check) (supreme.justia.com, retrieved 2026-09-01)