| Litigants: | Washington v. United States |
| Arguedate: | April 18 |
| Argueyear: | 2018 |
| Decidedate: | June 11 |
| Decideyear: | 2018 |
| Fullname: | Washington v. United States |
| Docket: | 17-269 |
| Usvol: | 584 |
| Uspage: | 837 |
| Parallelcitations: | 138 S. Ct. 1832; 201 L. Ed. 2d 200 |
| 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. |
| Percuriam: | yes |
| Notparticipating: | Kennedy |
Washington v. United States, 584 U.S. 837 (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"; however, with the 4-4 Supreme Court decision, it may not be binding on future court decisions.
The case was argued on April 18, 2018.[3] [4]
The decision was per curiam.[5]
The state was given until 2030 to repair the highest-priority culverts.[6]