El Paso Nat. Gas Co. v. United States

摘要

Federal government is not entitled to sovereign immunity in Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act lawsuit brought by natural gas company seeking to recover cleanup costs incurred at uranium mine sites on Navajo Indian reservation land over which government has fee title held in trust for tribe, because: (1) CERCLA waiver of federal government's sovereign immunity is not limited to nongovernmental activities and is co-extensive with CERCLA liability provision, and (2) even if CERCLA does not eliminate tribe's sovereign immunity and government acquires tribe's immunity in acting as trustee, CERCLA does not make exception to sovereign immunity waiver for cases where government acquires immunity from other sovereign.