Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc.

Western Nuclear (plaintiff) bought land originally patented under the SRHA, which reserved coal and other minerals to the federal government (defendant) while granting surface rights to homesteaders, and began extracting and selling gravel under a state permit; the Bureau of Land Management cited Western for trespassing on the reserved federal mineral interest, and after the Interior Board of Land Appeals and district court sided with the government, the court of appeals reversed, holding gravel was not a reserved mineral. The government sought Supreme Court review.