Hanian Clarifies

We touched on this last week when I told you that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came to town to discuss adjudication of water rights and, oh by the way, just happened to drop in on Gov. Otter. I wanted to be clear about the spirit of the visit so I called the Governor's long time press secretary, John Hanian and had a chat. "Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was here to talk about the Snake River Plain aquifer adjudication and the years of discussions, negotiations and court cases that finally resulted in a breakthrough and some solutions to some of these long-standing water problems. Scalia Took part in a conference and while he was here the governor met with him and Antonin Scalia came over here to meet with him. Is it fair to call this a case of states rights? It's a case of defining private property rights and specifically water rights. It is a very specialized area and law, water right adjudication and it has gone on for years and years here. Through the course of the years we have given it the necessary attention. Off the record, well it doesn't have to be off the record because I've heard the governor say that if it was up to Obama, he would sequester all the water in the country. That's right. That is one of the things that Scalia said that Idaho got it right and other states are following our lead. He actually suggested that.