426
Opinion of Rehnquist, C. J.
fine the maximum claim which the United States is asserting in this case." Earlier in the proceedings, the Master explicitly warned the United States about the preclusive effect of failing to assert potential claims: "In an action or a decree quieting title, you cut out all claims not asserted. . . . I just want you to be aware of the fact that the mere fact that it has not been asserted does not mean that you may not lose it . . . ." Exception by State Parties to Report of Special Master and Supporting Brief 8-9 (colloquy between counsel for the United States and the Special Master). Thus, under the general principles of res judicata, the United States would clearly be barred from now asserting the claim for additional water rights.
Special Master McGarr concluded that the United States' claim was not precluded because it fell within an exception to the bar of res judicata. Wisely abandoning the Master's reasoning, the United States instead defends the Master's ruling on the ground that these claims "are not precluded, under basic principles of res judicata, because [they] were not decided, and could not have been decided, in the prior proceedings." Reply Brief for United States in Response to Exception of State Parties 21. But this argument fares no better.
The issue before the Master in Arizona I was the amount of water from the Colorado River to which the Quechan Tribe was entitled. The Master made an allotment to the reservation based on the evidence then before him as to the amount of irrigable acreage within the reservation boundary, which was undisputed at the time. Only years after that decree was confirmed by this Court in Arizona I did the United States assert a larger claim to water for the reservation based on a claim for a larger amount of irrigable acre-age—not because of a miscalculation as to the irrigability of acreage already claimed, but because of a claimed extension of the boundaries of the reservation. But, at the time of Arizona I, the United States had in its possession all of
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