In the 1981 case Sporhase et al. v. Nebraska Ex Rel. Douglas, Attorney General, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a Nebraska law restricting the export of groundwater from its state to any other state was unconstitutional because it violated interstate commerce laws. The case arose when a farmer named Sporhase used water from his well in Colorado to irrigate his land in Nebraska and was charged with violating this law by not obtaining a permit for out-of-state use of water resources as required by Nebraska's statute. In their decision, the court stated that while states have significant authority over their own natural resources such as water, they cannot impose restrictions on these resources' movement across state lines unless there is an overriding conservation or environmental concern which justifies such restriction under Commerce Clause jurisprudence.

In the dissenting opinion for Sporhase v. Nebraska, Justice Rehnquist disagreed with the majority's interpretation of the Commerce Clause and its application to groundwater regulation. He argued that states should have authority over their natural resources, including water, without federal interference unless there is a clear national interest at stake. In his view, Nebraska's law restricting out-of-state transfer of groundwater was not discriminatory but rather an exercise of state power to conserve limited resources for its residents' benefit. He also contended that applying the Commerce Clause in this context could lead to federal control over all aspects of water use within individual states - something he believed would be detrimental and beyond what framers intended when drafting Constitution.