Florida v. Georgia (142-Orig)
argument 142-OrigFlorida v. Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 1m
5 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 6 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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What is the purpose of the oral argument in Florida v. Georgia?
We'll hear argument
next this morning in case one hundred forty two on our original docket, Florida against Georgia. Mr. Garr. Thank you, Mr Chief Justice, and may it please the court. The special master based his recommendation on two critical premises. First, that Florida has suffered real harm as a result of Georgia's ever increasing consumption of upstream waters. And second, that Georgia's consumption is unreasonable and largely unrestrained.
How did the Special Master define Florida’s alleged harm and Georgia’s consumption?
In fact, the special master found that Georgia's position, practically, politically and legally, is that it can consume as much water as it wishes without regard to any of the long term consequences for the Apa Apalachicola region. The special master nevertheless concluded that this case should be terminated at the outset. and that Georgia's wasteful consumption be allowed to continue unabated because Florida had failed to show an adequate adequate certainty of complete relief. With respect to the special master, we believe he m he made a legal error on this discrete issue that the case should be returned to him for him to complete the the work that he has begun.
Mr. Garr, I thought that the Special Master, and this is a page Sixty three to sixty five is the report said. That Florida At the trial concentrated only on the harm from the low flows in drought years and it did not address the benefits of increased flow during normal non dry drought periods. It didn't even address it, he said, uh no no less show the benefit that it would gain. So he he said if i if if Florida has not established its case, it's Florida's fault because all they did was concentrate on the drought years.
Right. And I think first of all the special master's entire report has to be viewed in light of the legal standard of redressability that he applied. And we believe that he applied far too great of a standard. Second of all, I think it is fair to say that Florida's uh presentation was focused on the harm that we surf suffer during drought conditions and the extreme low flow periods. But two things about that are important to understand. There's two ways to redress that harm. One is to provide more water during those periods, the the extreme low flow periods, the worst of the worst, and the other way is to reduce the frequency and severity of those drought operations. And the United United States, even the United States in this case, and it's at page twenty eight of its brief.
recognises that a decree in this case limiting Georgia's consumption would benefit Florida by reducing the frequency, severity and duration of drought conditions. Now we think that that's
the record show that
That we would benefit from that? Well, w what I can point you to, for example, is The uh two thousand and twelve drought, and we've explained this in the evidence sites at pages forty eight to forty nine of our brief. And what that example shows is that if more water had come into the system during the two thousand and twelve drought, which one is one of the worst that the region has experienced, it would have meant that the core would not have dipped into its drought operations during for for nine months during that period, which means that the core would not have fallen into the red zone where all the sort of needles are at the far end of the spectrum for nine months during that drought. And that has to have resulted in beneficial effects.
So here's my difficulty, Mr. Garr, with this argument, and it's especially with respect to this exception two D, I think it is. Is that you have common sense on your side. I mean you say, Well, it has to have shortened the drought or we you know, uh uh surely we would have gotten more water and that would have been beneficial to us. But there seems to be a real dearth of record evidence, specifically quantifying how much more water you would have gotten, exactly what benefits would have followed from that. It just doesn't seem as though Florida
Why does Florida argue that a consumption cap would relieve drought‑related harm?
put that into the record, even though you kind of want to say, well that must obviously be true.
Okay. Well first of all I agree with you, it obviously has to be true.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of the oral argument in Florida v. Georgia?
0:00–0:31
2
How did the Special Master define Florida’s alleged harm and Georgia’s consumption?
0:31–4:22
3
Why does Florida argue that a consumption cap would relieve drought‑related harm?
4:22–12:59
4
What evidence is presented to show that additional water would benefit the Apalachicola ecosystem?
12:59–20:58
5
How does the burden of proof shift between Florida and Georgia during equitable apportionment?
20:58–28:03
6
What role does the Army Corps of Engineers play in allocating water and how would a decree affect its operations?
28:03–38:13
7
Which legal standards and Supreme Court precedents govern the redressability analysis in this case?
38:13–49:24
8
What are the parties’ final arguments on whether the Court should adopt or reject the Special Master’s recommendation?
49:24–1:01:49