2
Syllabus
Whereas Idaho courts used to proportionately tax the "costs" against all parties to a water right adjudication at the time final judgment was entered, many of the items formerly taxed as "costs" are now denominated as "fees," and required to be paid into court at the outset. Moreover, although the amendment's language making "the State laws" applicable to the United States submits the Government generally to state procedural law, as well as to state substantive law of water rights, it does not subject the United States to payment of the fees in question. This Court has been particularly alert to require a specific waiver of sovereign immunity before the United States may be held liable for monetary exactions in litigation. See, e. g., United States v. Chemical Foundation, Inc., 272 U. S. 1, 20-21. The amendment's language is not sufficiently specific to meet this requirement. Pp. 5-9.
122 Idaho 116, 832 P. 2d 289, reversed and remanded.
Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which White, Blackmun, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 9.
Jeffrey P. Minear argued the cause for the United States. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Starr, Acting Solicitor General Bryson, Acting Assistant Attorney General O'Meara, Edwin S. Kneedler, Peter C. Monson, Robert L. Klarquist, and William B. Lazarus.
Clive J. Strong, Deputy Attorney General of Idaho, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Larry EchoHawk, Attorney General, and David J. Barber, Peter R. Anderson, and Steven W. Strack, Deputy Attorneys General.*
*Robert T. Anderson, Melody L. McCoy, Walter R. Echo-Hawk, Patrice Kunesh, Carl Ullman, Henry J. Sockbeson, and Dale T. White filed a brief for the Nez Perce Tribe et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.
Theodore R. Kulongoski, Attorney General of Oregon, Virginia L. Linder, Solicitor General, and Jerome S. Lidz, Stephen E. A. Sanders, and Rives Kistler, Assistant Attorneys General, filed a brief for the State of Alaska et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
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