William O. Douglas

“ A different rule obtains when the United States takes property protected by the Fifth Amendment. Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 299, 306, 43 S.Ct. 354, 356, 67 L.Ed. 664. The present water rights, though not protected by the Fifth Amendment, are ones which the United States has agreed to pay for under §§ 7 and 8 of the Reclamation Act. Sections 7 and 8 contain no provision for the payment of interest. The Act refers to state law to determine whether a water right exists not to ascertain the measure of damages for the taking. ”

“ I think it is clear under our decisions that respondents are not entitled to compensation as a matter of constitutional right. For we have repeatedly held that there are no private property rights in the waters of a navigable river. ”

“ For example, § 2 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of August 26, 1937, 50 Stat. 844, 850, provided that the Secretary of Interior 'may acquire by proceedings in eminent domain, or otherwise, all lands, rights-of-way, water rights, and other property necessary for said purposes.' Authority to pay for water rights is, of course, not to be construed to mean an assumption of liability to pay.
Congress, to be sure, has full power to relinquish its immunity from suit for the taking. ”

“ Such filings were made pursuant to state law on water rights riparian to at least 13 navigable or probably navigable rivers. This administrative practice is too clear to be contradicted by the Bureau of Reclamation documents cited by petitioner. [4] Moreover, the Commissioner of Reclamation has drawn our attention to recent public statements by Department of Interior officers confirming this practice. ”

“ Nor can respondents' rights to recover be founded on the Acts which appropriated money for the Central Valley project. They created no independent right in any claimant against the United States. That is the teaching of Justice Brandeis' opinion for the Court in Mitchell v. ”