Question 8
Nonktp wrote:
GMATNinja Could you please explain why question 8 's correct answer is E ? (I chose C which is wrong)
Quote:
8. It can be inferred from the passage that the Winters doctrine has been used to establish which of the following?
In the first paragraph of the passage, we learn that the Winters case established that certain water rights were reserved for Native Americans, even if the original treaty didn't mention water rights at all.
Later cases cited the Winters decision to further define situations in which the federal government can reserve water rights for particular purposes.
With that in mind, take another look at (C):
Quote:
(C) [It can be inferred that the Winters doctrine has been used to establish] criteria governing when the federal government may set land aside for a particular purpose
The Winters doctrine deals with reserving
water rights for a particular purpose, not with
setting aside land for a particular purpose. The land in question (a Native American reservation), has ALREADY been set aside. It's just that this land would be "useless" if the Native American inhabitants of the land did not have the right to use the water flowing through it.
The Winters case gave Native Americans those necessary water rights, but has nothing to do with setting aside
land for a particular purpose. For this reason, you can eliminate (C).
Quote:
(E) [It can be inferred that the Winters doctrine has been used to establish] the federal right to reserve water implicitly as well as explicitly under certain conditions
The Winters case and later decisions definitely expanded the federal government's right to reserve water in certain situations. In particular, the government could reserve water rights even when the original agreement "did not mention water rights" -- in other words, even if the government didn't
explicitly grant water rights at the time of a treaty, it could later say that those rights exist if the government "
intended to reserve water as well as land when establishing the reservation."
This means that the government can, in certain conditions,
implicitly reserve water for certain purposes, even if those water rights were not
explicitly written down in the original treaty or agreement.
(E) is the correct answer to question 8.
I hope that helps!