In People v. Rinehart, the Supreme Court today holds that a temporarily ban on a particular method of gold mining pending adoption of suitable regulations is not preempted by federal law, including the Mining Law of 1872. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Kathryn Werdegar concludes that “while Congress sought to protect miners’ real property interests, it did not go further and guarantee to them a right to mine immunized from exercises of the states’ police powers.”
The Supreme Court reverses the Third District Court of Appeal. It disagrees with a 1998 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion.