Georgia’s legislature recently passed a resolution to move its northern border one mile further north, essentially invading Tennessee! At stake are riparian rights to Nickajack Reservoir, which parched Georgia seeks.

If Georgia acts on the resolution, litigation would doubtlessly follow. Interestingly, it would provide a rare instance for the Supreme Court to exercise original jurisdiction over the matter. (That is, the states could bring the case directly to the Supreme Court without going through the district or appellate courts.) Article III, section 2 of the Constitution reads in relevant part, “In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” 12 U.S.C. 1251 further provides that “[t]he Supreme Court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States,” but in all the other options from section 2, the Supreme Court has “original but not exclusive jurisdiction.”

The exercise of original jurisdiction by the Supreme Court is relatively rare, so the prospect of such a case is exciting, at least to this court watcher!