Congress and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After the district court dismissed the lawsuit, the plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and filed for an injunction pending the outcome of the appeal.152 The Ninth Circuit granted the injunction.153 Professor Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx described the response by the proponents of the canal to the injunction in the following terms: [w]ith millions of dollars on the line, 9 percent of San Diego‘s future water supply at stake, and a construction project halted the water users decided to explore other options. None of these included settling with the plaintiffs. Instead, they went to Congress. The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, 279 pages long, contained tax relief measures and health savings account options for millions of Americans. The act had nothing to do with water until December 2006, when California senator Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx, Nevada senator Xxxxx Xxxx, and Arizona senator Xxx Xxx attached a last minute rider to the act declaring simply that ―notwithstanding any other provision of law, [the government] shall, without delay, carry out the All- American Canal Lining Project.‖ President Xxxxxx X. Xxxx signed the law three days after the U.S. court of appeals heard arguments on the plaintiffs‘ appeal.154 Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006,155 legislating that the All-American Canal Lining Project go forward after the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on the merits of the appeal in December of 2006, but before they rendered their decision.156 The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 provides that the exclusive authority for ―identifying, considering, analyzing, or addressing the impacts occurring outside the boundary of the United 152. See Consejo de Desarrollo Economico de Mexicali, 482 F.3d at 1167. 153. See id. 154. XXXXXXX, supra note 129, at 298-99; see also Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-432, 120 Stat. 2922. 155. Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006.
