Source: https://1attorneys.net/sturgeon-john-v-frost-bert-et-al-decided-03-26-2019/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 12:50:12+00:00

Document:
john sturgeon, PETITIONER v. BERT FROST,in his official capacity as alaska regional di-rector of the national park service, et al.
16 U. S. C. §3101 et seq. In Alaska, Sturgeon argues, the Park Service has no power to regulate lands or waters that the Federal Government does not own; rather, the Service may regulate only what ANILCA calls “public land” (essentially, federally owned land) in national parks. And, Sturgeon continues, the Federal Government does not own the Nation River—so the Service cannot ban hovercrafts there. When we last faced that argument, we disagreed with the reason the lower courts gave to reject it. But we remanded the case for consideration of two remaining questions. First, does “the Nation River qualif[y] as ‘public land’ for purposes of ANILCA”? 577 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 15). Second, “even if the [Nation] is not ‘public land,’ ” does the Park Service have authority to “regulate Sturgeon’s activities” on the part of the river in the Yukon-Charley? Id., at ___ (slip op., at 16). Today, we take up those questions, and answer both “no.” That means Sturgeon can again rev up his hovercraft in search of moose.
340, as amended; see Everhart 127. And more: By incorporating the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, the Statehood Act gave Alaska “title to and ownership of the lands beneath navigable waters,” such as the Nation River.
521 U. S. 1, 5 (1997). All told, the State thus emerged a formidable property holder.
43 U. S. C. §1601 et seq. But it granted the Natives much in return. Under the law, corporations organized by groups of Alaska Natives could select for themselves 40 million acres of federal land—equivalent, when combined, to all of Pennsylvania. See §§1605, 1610–1615. So the Natives became large landowners too.
54 U. S. C. §100102(6) (similar).
535, to administer both lands and waters within all system units in the country. See 54 U. S. C. §§100751, 100501, 100102. The Secretary “shall prescribe such regulations as [he] considers necessary or proper for the use and management of System units.” §100751(a). And he may, more specifically, issue regulations concerning “boating and other activities on or relating to water located within System units.” §100751(b). Those statutory grants of power make no distinctions based on the ownership of either lands or waters (or lands beneath waters). 1 And although the Park Service has sometimes chosen not to regulate non-federally owned lands and waters, it has also imposed major restrictions on their use. Rules about mining and solid-waste disposal, for example, apply to all lands within system units “whether federally or nonfederally owned.” 36 CFR §6.2; see §9.2. And (of particular note here) the Park Service freely regulates activities on all navigable (and some other) waters “within [a park’s] boundaries”—once more, “without regard to . . . ownership.” §1.2(a)(3). So Alaska and its Natives had reason to worry about how the Park Service would regulate their lands and waters within the new parks.
In Sturgeon I, we rejected one ground for dismissing Sturgeon’s case, but remanded for consideration of two further questions. The District Court and Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had held that even assuming the Nation River is non-public land, the Park Service could enforce its hovercraft ban there. See 2013 WL 5888230 (Oct. 30, 2013); 768 F. 3d 1066 (2014). Those two courts interpreted Section 103(c) to limit only the Service’s authority to impose Alaska-specific regulations on such lands—not its authority to apply nationwide regulations like the hovercraft rule. But we viewed that construction as “implausible.” 577 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 15). ANILCA, we reasoned, “repeatedly recognizes that Alaska is different.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 13); see id., at ___ (slip op., at 14) (The Act “reflect[s] the simple truth that Alaska is often the exception, not the rule”). Yet the lower courts’ reading would “prevent the Park Service from recognizing Alaska’s unique conditions”—thus producing a “topsy-turvy” result. Ibid. Still, we thought two hurdles remained before Sturgeon could take his hovercraft out of storage. We asked the Court of Appeals to decide whether the Nation River “qualifies as ‘public land’ for purposes of ANILCA,” thus indisputably subjecting it to the Service’s regulatory authority. Id., at ___ (slip op., at 15). And if the answer was “no,” we asked the Ninth Circuit to address whether the Service, on some different theory from the one just dispatched, could still “regulate Sturgeon’s activities on the Nation River.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 16).
The Ninth Circuit never got past the first question because it concluded that the Nation River is “public land[.]” See 872 F. 3d 927, 936 (2017). The court explained that it was bound by three circuit decisions construing that term, when used in ANILCA’s provisions about subsistence fishing, as including all navigable waters. Id., at 933–934. Accordingly, the court again rejected Sturgeon’s challenge. Id., at 936.
16 U. S. C. §3102(1)–(3). If the Nation River comes within that definition, even Sturgeon agrees that the Park Service may enforce its hovercraft rule in the stretch traversing the Yukon-Charley. That is because the Organic Act authorizes the Park Service to regulate boating and similar activities in parks and other system units—and under ANILCA’s Section 103(c) those units include all “public land” within their boundaries.
16 U. S. C. §3103(c); see supra, at 8–10.
43 U. S. C. §1311; see supra, at 4. That means Alaska, not the United States, has title to the lands beneath the Nation River.
207 U. S. 564, 576 (1908). And similarly, we held that in creating a national monument to preserve a species of fish inhabiting an underground pool, the United States acquired an enforceable interest in preventing others from depleting the pool below the level needed for the fish to survive. See Cappaert, 426 U. S., at 147. According to the Park Service, the United States has an analogous interest in the Nation River and other navigable waters in Alaska’s national parks. “Because th[e] purposes [of those parks] require that the waters within [them] be safeguarded against depletion and diversion,” the Service contends, “Congress’s reservations of park lands also reserved interests in appurtenant navigable waters.” Brief for Respondents 35.
That argument first raises the question whether it is even possible to hold “title,” as ANILCA uses the term, to reserved water rights.
16 U. S. C. §3102(2). Those rights, as all parties agree, are “usufructuary” in nature, meaning that they are rights for the Government to use—whether by withdrawing or maintaining—certain waters it does not own. See Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., 347 U. S., at 246; Brief for Petitioner 36; Brief for Respondents 36. The Park Service has found a couple of old cases suggesting that a person can hold “title” to such usufructuary interests. See ibid.; Crum v. Mt. Shasta Power Corp., 220 Cal. 295, 307, 30 P. 2d 30, 36 (1934); Radcliff ’s Ex’rs v. Mayor of Brooklyn, 4 N. Y. 195, 196 (1850). But the more common understanding, recently noted in another ANILCA case, is that “reserved water rights are not the type of property interests to which title can be held”; rather, “the term ‘title’ applies” to “fee ownership of property” and (sometimes) to “possessory interests” in property like those granted by a lease. See Totemoff v. State, 905 P. 2d 954, 965 (Alaska 1995) (collecting cases); Brief for State of Idaho et al. as Amici Curiae 21–22 (same). And we see no evidence that the Congress enacting ANILCA meant to use the term in any less customary and more capacious sense.
To understand why, first recall how Section 103(c) grew out of ANILCA’s unusual method for drawing park boundaries. See supra, at 7–8. Those lines followed the area’s “natural features,” rather than (as customary) the Federal Government’s property holdings.
16 U. S. C. §3103(b). The borders thus took in immense tracts owned by the State, Native Corporations, and private individuals. And as you might imagine, none of those parties was eager to have its lands newly regulated as national parks. To the contrary, all of them wanted to preserve the regulatory status quo—to prevent ANILCA’s maps from subjecting their properties to the Park Service’s rules. Hence arose Section 103(c). Cf. Tr. of Oral Arg. 50 (Solicitor General acknowledging that Section 103(c) responds to the State’s and Native Corporations’ “concern[s]” about the effects of “includ[ing their lands] within the outer boundaries” of the new parks). Now might be a good time to review that provision, block quoted above. See supra, at 9. In broad brush strokes, Sturgeon I described it as follows: “Section 103(c) draws a distinction between ‘public’ and ‘non-public’ lands,” including waters, “within the boundaries of [Alaska’s] conservation system units.” 577 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 14).
16 U. S. C. §3101(a). Yet it in-sisted as well on “provid[ing] for” Alaska’s (and its citizens’) “economic and social needs.” §3101(d). In keeping with the statute’s conservation goal, Congress reserved huge tracts of land for national parks. But to protect Alaskans’ economic well-being, it mitigated the consequences to non-federal owners whose land wound up in those new system units. See supra, at 17–20. Once again, even the Park Service acknowledges that Section 103(c) was supposed to provide an “assurance” that those owners would not be subject to all the regulatory constraints placed on neighboring federal properties. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 50; see id., at 46–47; supra, at 9, 17, 20. But then the Service (head-spinningly) posits that it need only draft its regulations to cover both federal and non-federal lands in order to apply those rules to ANILCA’s inholdings. On that view, limitations on the Service’s authority are purely a matter of administrative grace, dependent on how narrowly (or broadly) the Service chooses to write its regulations. And ANILCA’s carefully drawn balance is thrown off-kilter, as Alaskan, Native, and private inholdings are exposed to the full extent of the Service’s regulatory authority.
16 U. S. C. §3101(b). Similarly, the Service notes that the statements of purpose associated with particular system units refer to “protect[ing]” named rivers there. E.g., §410hh–1(1). And the Service highlights several statutory sections that in some way speak to its ability to regulate motorboating and fishing within the new units. See §§3121, 3170, 3201, 3203(b), 3204. 10 According to the Service, all of those provisions show that “ANILCA preserves [its] authority to regulate conduct on navigable waters” in national parks. Brief for Respondents 42.
16 U. S. C. §3103(c); see supra, at 9. The Act, in turn, defines “land” to mean “lands, waters, and interests therein.” §3102(1)–(3); see supra, at 9. So according to an express definition, when ANILCA refers to “lands,” it means waters (including navigable waters) as well. And that kind of definition is “virtually conclusive.” A. Scalia & B. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 228 (2012); see ibid. (“It is very rare that a defined meaning can be replaced” or altered). Save for some exceptional reason, we must read ANILCA as treating identically solid ground and flowing water. So if the Park Service were right that it could regulate the Nation River under its ordinary authorities, then it also could regulate the private fields and farms in the surrounding park. And more to the point, once Section 103(c) is understood to preclude the regulation of those landed properties, then the same result follows—“virtually conclusive[ ly]”—for the river.
Those authorities, though falling short of the Service’s usual power to administer navigable waters in system units, accord with ANILCA’s “repeated[ ] recogni[tion] that Alaska is different.” Sturgeon I, 577 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 13). ANILCA’s broadly drawn parks include stretches of some of the State’s most important rivers, such as the Yukon and Kuskokwim. See Brief for State of Alaska as Amicus Curiae 12. And rivers function as the roads of Alaska, to an extent unknown anyplace else in the country. Over three-quarters of Alaska’s 300 communities live in regions unconnected to the State’s road system. See id., at 11. Residents of those areas include many of Alaska’s poorest citizens, who rely on rivers for access to necessities like food and fuel. See id., at 11–12. Who knows?—maybe John Sturgeon could have found a comparable hunting ground that did not involve traveling by hovercraft through a national park. But some Alaskans have no such options. The State’s extreme climate and rugged terrain make them dependent on rivers to reach a market, a hospital, or a home. So ANILCA recognized that when it came to navigable waters—just as to non-federal lands—in the new parks, Alaska should be “the exception, not the rule.” Sturgeon I, 577 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 14). Which is to say, exempt from the Park Service’s normal regula-tory authority.
16 U. S. C. §3101(d). But public lands (and waters) was where it drew the line—or, at any rate, the legal one. ANILCA changed nothing for all the state, Native, and private lands (and waters) swept within the new parks’ boundaries. Those lands, of course, remain subject to all the regulatory powers they were before, exercised by the EPA, Coast Guard, and the like. But they did not become subject to new regulation by the happenstance of ending up within a national park. In those areas, Section 103(c) makes clear, Park Service administration does not replace local control. For that reason, park rangers cannot enforce the Service’s hovercraft rule on the Nation River. And John Sturgeon can once again drive his hovercraft up that river to Moose Meadows.
Professors have long asked law students to interpret a hypothetical ordinance that prohibits bringing “a vehicle into the park.” 1 The debate usually centers on what counts as a “vehicle.” Is a moped forbidden? How about a baby stroller? In this case, we can all agree that John Sturgeon’s hovercraft is a vehicle. But now we ask whether he has brought it “into the park”—and, if not, how ariver’s designation as “outside the park” will affect future attempts to regulate there.
16 U. S. C. §3101 et seq. I write separately to emphasize the important regulatory pathways that the Court’s decision leaves open for future exploration.
The Court holds only that the National Park Service may not regulate the Nation River as if it were within Alaska’s federal park system, not that the Service lacks all authority over the Nation River. A reading of ANILCA §103(c) that left the Service with no power whatsoever over navigable rivers in Alaska’s parks would be unten-able in light of ANILCA’s other provisions, which state Congress’ intent that the Service protect those very same rivers. Congress would not have set out this aim and simultaneously deprived the Service of all means to carry out the task.
Since the National Park System’s creation in 1872, it has grown to include over 400 historic and recreation areas encompassing over 84 million acres.
54 U. S. C. §100101(b)(1)(A); 83 Fed. Reg. 2065 (2018). These areas provide habitat for 247 threatened or endangered species and received more than 325 million visitors in 2016 alone. Id., at 2065–2066.
54 U. S. C. §100101(a). Congress empowered the agency to promulgate regulations “necessary or proper” for managing the Park System, including regulations “concerning boating and other activities on or relating to water located within [Park] System units.” §§100751(a), (b). The Service has carried out this charge by enacting a wide range of regulations, including the ban on hovercraft use at issue. See 36 CFR §2.17(e) (2018).
Wielding its Organic Act authority, the Service applies many park rules on federally owned lands and waters it administers, as well as navigable waters “within the boundaries of the National Park System.” See 36 CFR §§1.2(a)(1), (3). The title to lands beneath navigable waters, even within national parks, typically belongs to the States. 2 Because park boundaries can encompass both federally and nonfederally owned lands and waters, this means that some nonfederally owned waters are subject to Service regulations—at least outside of Alaska. See ante, at 7–8.
Against this backdrop, Congress enacted ANILCA. As the Court explains, ANILCA added millions of acres of federal land to the National Park System in Alaska and simultaneously swept around 18 million acres of nonfederally owned lands within the geographic boundary lines of the new Alaska parks. Ante, at 6–8; see also Sturgeon v. Frost, 577 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2016) (slip op., at 5–6). In ANILCA, Congress directed the Service to manage Alaska’s new and expanded parks “as new areas of the Na-tional Park System” under its Organic Act authority.
16 U. S. C. §410hh–2.
16 U. S. C. §3103(c). Section 103(c) then says that no state, native, or private lands “shall be subject to the regulations applicable solely to public lands within such units,” although the Secretary may acquire those lands and administer them as part of the unit. Ibid. ANILCA, in turn, defines “public lands” as nearly all “lands, waters, and interests therein” in which the United States has title. §§3102(1)–(3). Crucially, Alaska has title to the lands under its navigable waters. See n. 2, supra. If the Service’s ordinary author-ity over navigable waters within park boundaries is diminished in Alaska relative to everywhere else in the United States, all agree that ANILCA §103(c) is the culprit.
Critically, although the Court decides today that the Service may not regulate the Nation River “as part of the park,” ante, at 16, the Court does not hold that ANILCA §103(c) strips the Service of all authority to protect navigable waters in Alaska. For good reason. It would be absurd to think that Congress intended for the Service to preserve Alaska’s rivers, but left it without any tools todo so.
16 U. S. C. §410hh(10).
First, the Court expressly does not decide whether the Service may regulate navigable waters running through Alaska’s parks as an adjunct to its authority over the parks themselves. See ante, 19, n. 5. 6 In my view, the Service likely retains power over navigable rivers that run through Alaska’s parks when that power is necessary to protect Alaska’s parklands.
16 U. S. C. §3103(c); supra, at 4–5. The second sentence then emphasizes that the Service cannot regulate nonpublic lands as if they were part of the park. Together, these sentences mean that the Service loses its authority to apply normal park rules to nonpublic lands, and instead can apply only those rules that it can justify by reference to the needs of other, public lands. For instance, the Service is unlikely to have power to apply rules against abandoning property, 36 CFR §2.22(a), or trespassing, §2.31(a)(1), to nonpublic lands amid parklands because doing so would have little or no impact on neighboring public areas within the legal boundaries of the park. But a Service regulation tailored to apply to nonparklands in order to protect sensitive surrounding parklands—like a rule against putting a toxic substance in the Nation River to stop harms to the riverbanks—would present a different question. Such a regulation could be consistent with the Service’s limited Organic Act authority over out-of-park areas, and it would not run afoul of ANILCA because it would not be applicable to public lands.
16 U. S. C. §1271 et seq., established a system of rivers that “possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values.” §1271. Congress created the system to “preserv[e]” designated rivers “in free-flowing condition.” Ibid. Rivers can become part of the system if they are designated by an Act of Congress. §1273(a)(i).
ANILCA designated 26 Alaskan rivers as components of this system, more than doubling the mileage of the rivers in the system at the time.
16 U. S. C. §1274; S. Johnson & L. Comay, CRS Report for Congress, The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System: A Brief Overview 1 (2015); see §1281(c). ANILCA, in turn, expressly defines the Alaskan park system as including “any unit in Alaska of the . . . National Wild and Scenic Rivers Systems.” §3102(4).
285 U. S. 204, 208 (1932). To make sense of ANILCA §103(c) within the context of the rest of ANILCA, the Service should retain full authority to regulate the Wild and Scenic Rivers as parklands.
One final note warrants mention. Although I join the Court’s opinion, I recognize that today’s decision creates uncertainty concerning the extent of Service authority over navigable waters in Alaska’s parks. Courts ultimately may affirm some of the Service’s authority over out-of-park areas and Wild and Scenic Rivers. But that author-ity may be more circumscribed than the special needs of the parks require. This would not only make it impossible for the Service to fulfill Congress’ charge to preserve rivers, made plain in ANILCA itself, but also threaten the Service’s ability to fulfill its broader duty to protect all of the parklands through which the rivers flow. See, e.g., 16 U. S. C. §410hh(6) (Kobuk Valley National Park “shall be managed . . . [t]o maintain the environmental integrity of the natural features of the Kobuk River Valley, including the Kobuk, Salmon, and other rivers”). Many of Alaska’s navigable rivers course directly through the heart of protected parks, monuments, and preserves. A decision that leaves the Service with no authority, or only highly constrained authority, over those rivers would undercut Congress’ clear expectations in enacting ANILCA and could have exceedingly damaging consequences.
In light of the explicit instructions throughout ANILCA that the Service must regulate and protect rivers inAlaska, I am convinced that Congress intended the Service to possess meaningful authority over those rivers. If I am correct, Congress can and should clarify the broad scope of the Service’s authority over Alaska’s navigable waters.

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