Task: sc_respondentstate

What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to identify the state associated with the respondent. If the respondent is a federal court or federal judge, note the "state" as the United States. The same holds for other federal employees or officials.

Justice Kennedy
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns three rivers which flow through Montana and then beyond its borders. The question is whether discrete, identifiable segments of these rivers in Montana were nonnavigable, as federal law defines that concept for purposes of determining whether the State acquired title to the riverbeds underlying those segments, when the State entered the Union in 1889. Montana contends that the rivers must be found navigable at the disputed locations. From this premise, the State asserts that in 1889 it gained title to the disputed riverbeds under the constitutional equal-footing doctrine. Based on its title claims, Montana sought compensation from PPL Montana, LLC, a power company, for its use of the riverbeds for hydroelectric projects. The Montana courts granted summary judgment on title to Montana, awarding it $41 million in rent for the riverbeds for the period from 2000 to 2007 alone. That judgment must be reversed.
I
The three rivers in question are the Missouri River, the Madison River, and the Clark Fork River. The Missouri and the Madison are on the eastern side of the Continental Divide. The Madison flows into the Missouri, which then continues at length to its junction with the Mississippi River. The Clark Fork River is on the western side of the Continental Divide. Its waters join the Columbia River system that flows into the Pacific Ocean. Each river shall be described in somewhat more detail.
A
The Missouri River originates in Montana and traverses seven States before a point just north of St. Louis where it joins the Mississippi. 19 Encyclopedia Americana 270 (int’l ed. 2006). If considered with the continuous path formed by certain streams that provide the Missouri River’s headwaters, the Missouri is over 2,500 miles long, the longest river in the United States. Ibid. The Missouri River’s basin (the land area drained by the river) is the second largest in the Nation, surpassed only by the Mississippi River basin of which it is a part. Rivers of North America 427 (A. Benke & C. Cushing eds. 2005) (hereinafter Rivers of North America). As a historical matter, the river shifted and flooded often, and contained many sandbars, islands, and unstable banks. Id., at 432-433. The river was once described as one of the most “variable beings in creation,” as “inconstant [as] the action of the jury,” Sioux City Register (Mar. 28, 1868); and its high quantity of downstream sediment flow spawned its nickname, the “Big Muddy,” Rivers of North America 433.
The upstream part of the Missouri River in Montana, known as the Upper Missouri River, is better characterized as rocky rather than muddy. While one usually thinks of the Missouri River as flowing generally south, as indeed it does beginning in North Dakota, the Upper Missouri in Montana flows north from its principal headwaters at Three Forks, which is located about 4,000 feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountain area of southwestern Montana. It descends through scenic mountain terrain including the deep gorge at the Gates of the Mountains; turns eastward through the Great Falls reach, cascading over a roughly 10-mile stretch of cataracts and rapids over which the river drops more than 400 feet; and courses swiftly to Fort Benton, a 19th-century fur trading post, before progressing farther east into North Dakota and on to the Great Plains. 19 Encyclopedia Americana, supra, at 270; 8 New Encyclopaedia Britannica 190 (15th ed. 2007) (hereinafter Encyclopaedia Britannica); 2 Columbia Gazetteer of the World 2452 (2d ed. 2008) (hereinafter Columbia Gazetteer); F. Warner, Montana and the Northwest Territory 75 (1879). In 1891, just after Montana became a State, the Upper Missouri River above Fort Benton was “seriously obstructed by numerous rapids and rocks,” and the 168-mile portion flowing eastward “[f]rom Fort Benton to Carroll, Mont., [was] called the rocky river.” Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army (1891), in H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, pt. 2, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., vol. II, pp. 275-276 (1891) (hereinafter H. R. Exec. Doc.).
The Great Falls exemplify the rocky, rapid character of the Upper Missouri. They consist of five cascade-like waterfalls located over a stretch of the Upper Missouri leading downstream from the city of Great Falls in midwestern Montana. The waterfall farthest downstream, and the one first encountered by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark when they led their remarkable expedition through the American West in 1805, is the eponymous “Great Falls,” the tallest of the five falls at 87 feet. W. Clark, Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark 109, n. 5 (J. Holmberg ed. 2002) (hereinafter Dear Brother). Lewis recorded observations of this “sublimely grand specticle”:
“[T]he whole body of water passes with incredible swiftness... over a precipice of at least eighty feet.... [T]he irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water... and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets... [that] are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them.... [T]he [rainbow] reflection of the sun on the sprey or mist... adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery.” The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery 129 (G. Moulton ed. 2008) (hereinafter Lewis and Clark Journals); The Journals of Lewis and Clark 136-138 (B. DeVoto ed. 1981).
If one proceeds alongside the river upstream from Great Falls, as Lewis did in scouting the river for the expedition, the other four falls in order are “Crooked Falls” (19 feet high); “Rainbow Falls” (48 feet), which Lewis called “one of the most bea[u]tifull objects in nature”; “Colter Falls” (7 feet); and “Black Eagle Falls” (26 feet). See Lewis and Clark Journals 131-132; Dear Brother 109, n. 5; P. Outright, Lewis & Clark: Pioneering Naturalists 154-156 (2003). Despite the falls’ beauty, Lewis could see that their steep cliffs and swift waters would impede progress on the river, which had been the expedition’s upstream course for so many months. The party proceeded over a more circuitous land route by means of portage, circumventing the Great Falls and their surrounding reach of river before returning to travel upon the river about a month later. See Lewis and Clark Journals 126-152.
The Upper Missouri River, both around and further upstream of the Great Falls, shares the precipitous and fast-moving character of the falls themselves. As it moves downstream over the Great Falls reach, a 17-mile stretch that begins somewhat above the head of Black Eagle Falls, the river quickly descends about 520 feet in elevation, see Montana Power Co. v. FPC, 185 F. 2d 491 (CADC 1950); 2010 MT 64, ¶¶29-30, 108-109, 355 Mont. 402, 416, 442, 229 P. 3d 421, 433, 449, dropping over 400 feet within 10 miles from the first rapid to the foot of Great Falls, Parker, Black Eagle Falls Dam, 27 Transactions Am. Soc. of Civ. Engineers 56 (1892). In 1879, that stretch was a “constant succession of rapids and falls.” Warner, supra, at 75; see also 9 The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition 171 (G. Moulton ed. 1995) (hereinafter Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition) (“a continued rapid the whole way for 17 miles”). Lewis noted the water was so swift over the area that buffalo were swept over the cataracts in “considerable quantities” and were “instantly crushed.” Lewis and Clark Journals 136-137. Well above the Great Falls reach, the Stubbs Ferry-stretch of the river from Helena to Cascade also had steep gradient and was “much obstructed by rocks and dangerous rapids.” Report of the Secretary of War, 2 H. R. Doc. No. 2, 54th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 1, p. 301 (1895).
B
The second river to be considered is the Madison, one of the Missouri River’s headwater tributaries. Named by Lewis and Clark for then-Secretary of State James Madison, the Madison River courses west out of the Northern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Montana in what is now Yellowstone National Park, then runs north and merges with the Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers at Three Forks, Montana, to form the Upper Missouri. Lewis and Clark Journals 158; Rivers of North America 459; 7 Encyclopaedia Britannica 658; 2 Columbia Gazetteer 2242. Along its path, the Madison River flows through two lakes artificially created by dams built in canyons: Hebgen Lake and Ennis Lake. Federal Writers’ Project of the Work Projects Administration, Montana: A State Guide Book 356 (J. Stahlberg ed. 1949); R. Aarstad, E. Arguimbau, E. Baumler, C. Porsild, & B. Shov-ers, Montana Place Names From Alzada to Zortman: A Montana Historical Society Guide 166 (2009).
C
The third river at issue in this case is the Clark Fork. That river, which consists in large part of “long, narrow streams confined by mountainous terrain,” rises at an elevation of about 5,000 feet in the Silver Bow Mountains of southwestern Montana. 3 Encyclopaedia Britannica 352; Dept, of Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, J. Stevens & F. Henshaw, Surface Water Supply of the United States, 1907-8, Water-Supply Paper 252, pp. 81-82 (1910). The river flows northward for about 40 miles; turns northwest for a stretch; then turns abruptly northeast for a short stint, by which time it has descended nearly 2,500 feet in altitude. It then resumes a northwestward course until it empties into Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho, out of which flows a tributary to the Columbia River of the Pacific Northwest. Ibid.; 1 Columbia Gazetteer 816. The Clark Fork is “one of the wildest and most picturesque streams in the West,” marked by “many waterfalls and boxed gorges.” Federal Writers’ Projects of the Works Progress Administration, Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture 230 (2d ed. 1950).
Lewis and Clark knew of the Clark Fork River but did not try to navigate it, in part because the absence of salmon in one of its tributaries made Lewis believe “ ‘there must be a considerable fall in [the river] below.’ ” H. Fritz, The Lewis and Clark Expedition 38-39 (2004). This was correct, for shortly before the Clark Fork exits to Idaho from the northwest corner of Montana, “the waters of the river dash madly along their rocky bed,” dropping over 30 feet in a half mile as they rush over falls and rapids including a “foaming waterfall” now known as Thompson Falls. 0. Rand, A Vacation Excursion: From Massachusetts Bay to Puget Sound 176-177 (1884); C. Kirk, A History of the Montana Power Company 231 (2008).
II
Petitioner PPL Montana, LLC (PPL), owns and operates hydroelectric facilities that serve Montana residents and businesses. Ten of its facilities are built upon riverbeds underlying segments of the Upper Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork Rivers. It is these beds to which title is disputed.
On the Upper Missouri River, PPL has seven hydroelectric dams. Five of them are along the Great Falls reach, including on the three tallest falls; and the other two are in canyons upstream on the Stubbs Ferry stretch. See K. Robison, Cascade County and Great Falls 56 (2011); Aarstad et ah, supra, at 125, 119, 145-146. On the Madison River, two hydroelectric dams are located in steep canyons. On the Clark Fork River, a hydroelectric facility is constructed on the Thompson Falls.
The dams on the Upper Missouri and Madison are called the Missouri-Madison project. The Thompson Falls facility is called the Thompson Falls project. Both projects are licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. PPL acquired them in 1999 from its predecessor, the Montana Power Company. 355 Mont., at 405-406, 229 P. 3d, at 426.
PPL's power facilities have existed at their locations for many decades, some for over a century. See Robison, supra, at 40 (Black Eagle Falls dam constructed by 1891). Until recently, these facilities were operated without title-based objection by the State of Montana. The State was well aware of the facilities’ existence on the riverbeds — indeed, various Montana state agencies had participated in federal licensing proceedings for these hydroelectric projects. See, e. g., Montana Power Co., 8 F. P. C. 751, 752 (1949) (Thompson Falls project); Montana Power Co., 27 FERC ¶62,097, pp. 63,188-63,189 (1984) (Ryan Dam of Missouri-Madison project). Yet the State did not seek, and accordingly PPL and its predecessor did not pay, compensation for use of the riverbeds. 355 Mont., at 406, 229 P. 3d, at 427. Instead, the understanding of PPL and the United States is that PPL has been paying rents to the United States for use of those riverbeds, as well as for use of river uplands flooded by PPL’s projects. Reply Brief for Petitioner 4; App. to Supp. Brief to Reply in Opposition 4-5; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 3, n. 3.
In 2003, parents of Montana schoolchildren sued PPL in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, arguing that PPL had built its facilities on riverbeds that were state owned and part of Montana’s school trust lands. 355 Mont., at 406, 229 P. 3d, at 426. Prompted by the litigation, the State joined the lawsuit, for the first time seeking rents for PPL’s riverbed use. The case was dismissed in September 2005 for lack of diversity jurisdiction. Dolan v. PPL Montana, LLC, No. 9:03-cv-167 (D Mont., Sept. 27, 2005).
PPL and two other power companies sued the State of Montana in the First Judicial District Court of Montana, arguing that the State was barred from seeking compensation for use of the riverbeds. 355 Mont., at 407-408, 229 P. 3d, at 427-428. By counterclaim, the State sought a declaration that under the equal-footing doctrine it owns the riverbeds used by PPL and can charge rent for their use. Id., at 408, 229 P. 3d, at 428. The Montana trial court granted summary judgment to Montana as to navigability for purposes of determining riverbed title. Id., at 408-409, 413-414, 229 P. 3d, at 428, 431-432; App. to Pet. for Cert. 143. The court decided that the State owned the riverbeds. 355 Mont., at 428-429, 229 P. 3d, at 440. The court ordered PPL to pay $40,956,180 in rent for use of the riverbeds between 2000 and 2007. Id., at 431-432, 229 P. 3d, at 442-443. Whether a lease for future periods would commence, and, if so, at what rental rate, seems to have been left to the discretion of the Montana Board of Land Commissioners. App. to Pet. for Cert. 128-129.
In a decision by a divided court, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed. 355 Mont., at 461-462, 229 P. 3d, at 460-461; id., at 462, 229 P. 3d, at 461 (dissenting opinion). The court reasoned from the background principle that “navigability for title purposes is very liberally construed.” Id., at 438, 229 P. 3d, at 446. It dismissed as having “limited applicability” this Court’s approach of assessing the navigability of the disputed segment of the river rather than the river as a whole. Id., at 441-442, 229 P. 3d, at 448-449. The Montana court accepted that certain relevant stretches of the rivers were not navigable but declared them “merely short interruptions” insufficient as a matter of law to find nonnavi-gability, since traffic had circumvented those stretches by overland portage. Id., at 438, 442, 229 P. 3d, at 446, 449. Placing extensive reliance upon evidence of present-day use of the Madison River, the court found that river navigable as a matter of law at the time of statehood. Id., at 439, 229 P. 3d, at 447.
Justice Rice dissented. Id., at 462, 229 P. 3d, at 461. He stated that “courts are not to assume an entire river is navigable merely because certain reaches of the river are navigable.” Id., at 464, 229 P. 3d, at 462. The majority erred, he wrote, in rejecting the “section-by-section approach” and “declaring, as a matter of law, that the reaches claimed by PPL to be non-navigable are simply too ‘short’ to matter,” when in fact PPL’s evidence showed the “disputed reaches of the rivers were, at the time of statehood, non-navigable.” Id., at 463-466, 476-477, 229 P. 3d, at 462-464, 470.
This Court granted certiorari, 564 U. S. 1018 (2011), and now reverses the judgment.
III
A
PPL contends the opinion of the Montana Supreme Court is flawed in three respects: first, the court’s failure to consider with care the navigability of the particular river segments to which title is disputed, and its disregard of the necessary overland portage around some of those segments; second, its misplaced reliance upon evidence of present-day, recreational use; and third, what the state court itself called its liberal construction of the navigability test, which did not place the burden of proof upon the State to show navigability. Brief for Petitioner 26. The United States as amicus is in substantial agreement with PPL’s arguments, although it offers a more extended discussion with respect to evidence of present-day, recreational use. Brief for United States 27-33.
It is appropriate to begin the analysis by discussing the legal principles that control the case.
B
The rule that the States, in their capacity as sovereigns, hold title to the beds under navigable waters has origins in English common law. See Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1,13 (1894). A distinction was made in England between waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide (royal rivers) and nontidal waters (public highways). With respect to royal rivers, the Crown was presumed to hold title to the riverbed and soil, but the public retained the right of passage and the right to fish in the stream. With respect to public highways, as the name suggests, the public also retained the right of water passage; but title to the riverbed and soil, as a general matter, was held in private ownership. Riparian landowners shared title, with each owning from his side to the center thread of the stream, as well as the exclusive right to fish there. See Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U. S. 261, 285 (1997) (summarizing J. Angelí, A Treatise on the Common Law in Relation to Water-Courses 14-18 (1824)); 3 J. Kent, Commentaries on American Law 528-529 (9th ed. 1858).
While the tide-based distinction for bed title was the initial rule in the 13 Colonies, after the Revolution American law moved to a different standard. Some state courts came early to the conclusion that a State holds presumptive title to navigable waters whether or not the waters are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide. See, e. g., Carson v. Blazer, 2 Binn. 475 (Pa. 1810); Executors of Cates v. Wadlington, 12 S. C. L. 580 (1822); Wilson v. Forbes, 13 N. C. 30 (1828); Bullock v. Wilson, 2 Port. 436 (Ala. 1835); Elder v. Burrus, 25 Tenn. 358 (1845). The tidal rule of “navigability” for sovereign ownership of riverbeds, while perhaps appropriate for England’s dominant coastal geography, was ill suited to the United States with its vast number of major inland rivers upon which navigation could be sustained. See L. Houck, Law of Navigable Rivers 26-27, 31-35 (1868); Packer v. Bird, 137 U. S. 661, 667-669 (1891). By the late 19th century, the Court had recognized “the now prevailing doctrine” of state sovereign “title in the soil of rivers really navigable.” Shively, supra, at 31; see Barney v. Keokuk, 94 U. S. 324, 336 (1877) (“In this country, as a general thing, all waters are deemed navigable which are really so”). This title rule became known as “navigability in fact.”
The rule for state riverbed title assumed federal constitutional significance under the equal-footing doctrine. In 1842, the Court declared that for the 13 original States, the people of each State, based on principles of sovereignty, “hold the absolute right to all their navigable waters and the soils under them,” subject only to rights surrendered and powers granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government. Martin v. Lessee of Waddell, 16 Pet. 367, 410. In a series of 19th-century cases, the Court determined that the same principle applied to States later admitted to the Union, because the States in the Union are coequal sovereigns under the Constitution.'See, e. g., Lessee of Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How. 212, 228-229 (1845); Knight v. United States Land Assn., 142 U. S. 161, 183 (1891); Shively, supra, at 26-31; see United States v. Texas, 339 U. S. 707, 716 (1950). These precedents are the basis for the equal-footing doctrine, under which a State’s title to these lands was “conferred not by Congress but by the Constitution itself.” Oregon ex rel. State Land Bd. v. Corvallis Sand & Gravel Co., 429 U. S. 363, 374 (1977). It follows that any ensuing questions of navigability for determining state riverbed title are governed by federal law. See, e. g., United States v. Utah, 283 U. S. 64, 75 (1931); United States v. Oregon, 295 U. S. 1,14 (1935).
The title consequences of the equal-footing doctrine can be stated in summary form: Upon statehood, the State gains title within its borders to the beds of waters then navigable (or tidally influenced, see Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U. S. 469 (1988), although that is not relevant in this case). It may allocate and govern those lands according to state law subject only to “the paramount power of the United States to control such waters for purposes of navigation in interstate and foreign commerce.” Oregon, supra, at 14; see Montana v. United States, 450 U. S. 544, 551 (1981); United States v. Holt State Bank, 270 U. S. 49, 54 (1926). The United States retains any title vested in it before statehood to any land beneath waters not then navigable (and not tidally influenced), to be transferred or licensed if and as it chooses. See Utah, supra, at 75; Oregon, supra, at 14.
Returning to the “navigability in fact” rule, the Court has explained the elements of this test. A basic formulation of the rule was set forth in The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557 (1871), a case concerning federal power to regulate navigation:
“Those rivers must be regarded as public navigable rivers in law which are navigable in fact. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water.” Id., at 563.
The Daniel Ball formulation has been invoked in considering the navigability of waters for purposes of assessing federal regulatory authority under the Constitution, and the application of specific federal statutes, as to the waters and their beds. See, e. g., ibid.; The Montello, 20 Wall. 430, 439 (1874); United States v. Appalachian Elec. Power Co., 311 U. S. 377, 406, and n. 21 (1940) (Federal Power Act); Rapanos v. United States, 547 U. S. 715, 730-731 (2006) (plurality opinion) (Clean Water Act); id., at 761 (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment) (same). It has been used as well to determine questions of title to water beds under the equal-footing doctrine. See Utah, supra, at 76; Oklahoma v. Texas, 258 U. S. 574, 586 (1922); Holt State Bank, supra, at 56. It should be noted, however, that the test for navigability is not applied in the same way in these distinct types of cases.
Among the differences in application are the following. For state title under the equal-footing doctrine, navigability is determined at the time of statehood, see Utah, supra, at 75, and based on the “natural and ordinary condition” of the water, see Oklahoma, supra, at 591. In contrast, admiralty jurisdiction extends to water routes made navigable even if not formerly so, see, e. g., Ex parte Boyer, 109 U. S. 629, 631-632 (1884) (artificial canal); and federal regulatory authority encompasses waters that only recently have become navigable, see, e. g., Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson, 223 U. S. 605, 634-635 (1912), were once navigable but are no longer, see Economy Light & Power Co. v. United States, 256 U. S. 113,123-124 (1921), or are not navigable and never have been but may become so by reasonable improvements, see Appa lachian Elec. Power Co., supra, at 407-408. With respect to the federal commerce power, the inquiry regarding navigation historically focused on interstate commerce. See The Daniel Ball, supra, at 564. And, of course, the commerce power extends beyond navigation. See Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U. S. 164,173-174 (1979). In contrast, for title purposes, the inquiry depends only on navigation and not on interstate travel. See Utah, supra, at 76. This list of differences is not exhaustive. Indeed, “[e]ach application of [the Daniel Ball\ test... is apt to uncover variations and refinements which require further elaboration.” Appalachian Elec. Power Co., supra, at 406.
> 1 — l
A
The primary flaw in the reasoning of the Montana Supreme Court lies in its treatment of the question of river segments and overland portage.
To determine title to a riverbed under the equal-footing doctrine, this Court considers the river on a segment-by-segment basis to assess whether the segment of the river, under which the riverbed in dispute lies, is navigable or not. In United States v. Utah, for example, the Court noted:
“[T]he controversy relates only to the sections of the rivers which are described in the complaint, and the Master has limited his findings and conclusions as to navigability accordingly. The propriety of this course, in view of the physical characteristics of the streams, is apparent. Even where the navigability of a river, speaking generally, is a matter of common knowledge, and hence one of which judicial notice may be taken, it may yet be a question, to be determined upon evidence, how far navigability extends.” 283 U. S., at 77.
The Court went on to conclude, after reciting and assessing the evidence, that the Colorado River was navigable for its first roughly 4-mile stretch, nonnavigable for the next roughly 36-mile stretch, and navigable for its remaining 149 miles. Id., at 73-74, 79-81, 89. The Court noted the importance of determining “the exact point at which navigability may be deemed to end.” Id., at 90.
Similarly, in Brewer-Elliott Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 260 U. S. 77, 86 (1922), the Court examined the segment of the Arkansas River that ran along the Osage Indian Reservation, assessing whether the Arkansas River was “navigable in fact at the locus in quo.” The Court concluded that the United States originally, and the Osages as its grantees, unequivocally held title to the riverbeds because the Arkansas River “is and was not navigable at the place where the river bed lots, here in controversy, are.” Id., at 86. The Court found the segment of river along the reservation to be nonnavigable even though a segment of the river that began further downstream was navigable. Ibid. See also Oklahoma, supra, at 583, 684, 587-588, 589-591 (noting that “how far up the streams navigability extended was not known”; assessing separately the segments of the Red River above and below its confluence with the Washita River within Oklahoma’s borders; and concluding that neither segment, and hence “no part of the river within Oklahoma,” was navigable).
The Montana Supreme Court discounted the segment-by-segment approach of this Court’s cases, calling it “a piece meal classification of navigability — with some stretches declared navigable, and others declared non-navigable.” 355 Mont., at 440-442, 229 P. 3d, at 448-449. This was error. The segment-by-segment approach to navigability for title is well settled, and it should not be disregarded. A key justification for sovereign ownership of navigable riverbeds is that a contrary rule would allow private riverbed owners to erect improvements on the riverbeds that could interfere with the public’s right to use the waters as a highway for commerce. While the Federal Government and States retain regulatory power to protect public navigation, allocation to the State of the beds underlying navigable rivers reduces the possibility of conflict between private and public interests. See Utah, supra, at 82-83; Packer, 137 U. S., at 667. By contrast, segments that are nonnavigable at the time of statehood are those over which commerce could not then occur. Thus, there is no reason that these segments also should be deemed owned by the State under the equal-footing doctrine.
Practical considerations also support segmentation. Physical conditions that affect navigability often vary significantly over the length of a river. This is particularly true with longer rivers, which can traverse vastly different terrain and the flow of which can be affected by varying local climates. The Missouri River provides an excellent example: Between its headwaters and mouth, it runs for over 2,000 miles out of steep mountains, through canyons and upon rocky beds, over waterfalls and rapids, and across sandy plains, capturing runoff from snow melt and farmland rains alike. These shifts in physical conditions provide a means to determine appropriate start points and end points for the segment in question. Topographical and geographical indicators may assist. See, e. g., Utah, supra, at 77-80 (gradient changes); Oklahoma, 258 U. S., at 589 (location of tributary providing additional flow).
A segment approach to riverbed title allocation under the equal-footing doctrine is consistent with the manner in which private parties seek to establish riverbed title. For centuries, where title to the riverbed was not in the sovereign, the common-law rule for allocating riverbed title among riparian landowners involved apportionment defined both by segment (each landowner owns bed and soil along the length of his land adjacent) and thread (each landowner owns bed and soil to the center of the stream). See J. Angelí, A Treatise on the Law of Watercourses 18 (6th ed. 1869); Tyler v. Wilkinson, 24 F. Cas. 472, 474 (No. 14,312) (CC RI 1827) (Story, J.). Montana, moreover, cannot suggest that segmentation is in-administrable when the state courts managed to divide up and apportion the underlying riverbeds for purposes of determining their value and the corresponding rents owed by PPL.
The Montana Supreme Court, relying upon Utah, decided that the segment-by-segment approach is inapplicable here because it “does not apply to ‘short interruptions] of navigability in a stream otherwise navigable.’ ” 355 Mont., at 442, 229 P. 3d, at 449 (quoting Utah, 283 U. S., at 77). This was mistaken. In Utah, this Court noted in passing that the facts of the case concerned “long reaches with particular characteristics of navigability or non-navigability” rather than “short interruption^].” Id., at 77. The Court in Utah did not say the case would have a different outcome if a “short interruption” were concerned. Ibid.
Even if the law might find some nonnavigable segments so minimal that they merit treatment as part of a longer, navigable reach for purposes of title under the equal-footing doctrine, it is doubtful that any of the segments in this case would meet that standard, and one — the Great Falls reach— certainly would not. As an initial matter, the kinds of considerations that would define a de minimis exception to the segment-by-segment approach would be those related to principles of ownership and title, such as inadministrability of parcels of exceedingly small size, or worthlessness of the parcels due to overdivision. See Heller, The Tragedy of the Anticommons, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 621, 682-684 (1998) (explaining that dividing property into square-inch parcels could, absent countervailing legal mechanisms, “paralyze the alien-ability of scarce resources... or diminish their value too drastically”). An analysis of segmentation must be sensibly applied. A comparison of the nonnavigable segment’s length to the overall length of the stream, for instance, would be simply irrelevant to the issue at hand.
A number of the segments at issue here are both discrete, as defined by physical features characteristic of navigability or nonnavigability, and substantial, as a matter of admin-istrability for title

Question: What state is associated with the respondent?
年. Alabama
数. Alaska
日. American Samoa
的. Arizona
月. Arkansas
用. California
成. Colorado
名. Connecticut
时. Delaware
件. District of Columbia
一. Federated States of Micronesia
请. Florida
中. Georgia
据. Guam
码. Hawaii
不. Idaho
新. Illinois
文. Indiana
下. Iowa
分. Kansas
入. Kentucky
人. Louisiana
功. Maine
上. Marshall Islands
户. Maryland
为. Massachusetts
间. Michigan
号. Minnesota
取. Mississippi
回. Missouri
在. Montana
页. Nebraska
字. Nevada
有. New Hampshire
个. New Jersey
作. New Mexico
示. New York
出. North Carolina
是. North Dakota
失. Northern Mariana Islands
表. Ohio
除. Oklahoma
加. Oregon
败. Palau
生. Pennsylvania
信. Puerto Rico
类. Rhode Island
置. South Carolina
理. South Dakota
本. Tennessee
息. Texas
行. Utah
定. Vermont
改. Virgin Islands
市. Virginia
期. Washington
以. West Virginia
修. Wisconsin
元. Wyoming
方. United States
录. Interstate Compact
区. Philippines
单. Indian
位. Dakota
Answer:

Answer: 在