Nevada will give up 50,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year over the next two years under a federal operating framework released Friday that cuts distributions to three states. Nevada holds by far the smallest share of the Colorado River of any of the three Lower Basin states — just 300,000 acre-feet, compared with Arizona's 2.8 million and California's 4.4 million. The Upper Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah — face no mandatory cuts. Elizabeth Koebele, a UNR political science professor who studies Colorado River governance, said the state's ability to build back a cushion is worrying. There is currently one Supreme Court justice from west of the Mississippi and none from the Colorado River Basin, UNR's Koebele noted, and handing water decisions to the Supreme Court "would be a really big shift in the trajectory of Colorado River governance."