Washington v. United States

Washington v. United States, 584 U.S. ___ (2018), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding Native American fishing rights in the U.S. state of Washington. In the case, the court deadlocked 4-4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy recusing himself due to his prior involvement in the case as a judge on the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.[1] The deadlock left standing a lower court ruling that the State of Washington must redesign and rebuild road culverts to allow salmon to swim upstream, to uphold Native American treaty rights to fish.[2] The issue decided by the federal courts was whether, under the 1855–1856 Stevens Treaties, "the right to fish is the right to put a net in the water or the right for there to be fish to catch";[3] however, with the 4-4 Supreme Court decision, it may not be binding on future court decisions.[4]

Washington v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 18, 2018 Decided June 11, 2018
Full case name	Washington v. United States
Docket no.	17-269
Citations	584 U.S. ___ (more) 138 S. Ct. 1832; 201 L. Ed. 2d 200
Case history
Prior	United States v. Washington, 853 F.3d 946 (9th Cir. 2017); cert. granted, 138 S. Ct. 735 (2018).
Holding
Lower court upheld by divided Court.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan · Neil Gorsuch
Case opinion
Per curiam
Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

The case was argued on April 18, 2018.[5][6]

The decision was per curiam.[7]

The state was given until 2030 to repair the highest-priority culverts.[8]