Opinion ID: 8938355
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Confirmation of All Boundaries at Three Miles.

Text: Erom the very outset, the sponsors of “quitclaim” legislation believed that all States were entitled to at least three miles of coastal submerged lands. 19 The earliest bills confirmed to the States all lands beneath navigable waters within their boundaries, and defined “lands beneath navigable waters” to include at least all lands lying within three geographical miles of the coast of each State. 20 However, they contained no definition of  “boundaries,” and it was apparently assumed that the boundaries of all States extended at least three miles. 21 Opponents of such legislation quickly pointed out that while California based its three-mile claim on an expressly defined maritime boundary, many, if not most, of the coastal States lacked such a boundary, 22 and that therefore, such States could not avail themselves of the Pollard rule, the applicability of which is restricted to areas within the actual territorial boundaries of the State, even assuming the rule to be capable of application beyond low-water mark. 23 Proponents of the legislation alleged it to be  defective in that it granted only those lands beneath navigable waters which lay within state boundaries, and that this Court in the California case, while not expressly passing on the question, had cast doubt on whether any of the original States ever had a boundary beyond its coast. 24 As a result, a new section was added, substantially similar to the second and third sentences of § 4 of the present Act (see note 8, ante), which permitted each State which had not already done so to extend its boundary seaward three miles and approved all such extensions theretofore or thereafter made, without prejudice to any State’s claim that its boundary extended beyond three miles. 25 It is not entirely clear on what theory Congress thus concluded that each State owned the submerged lands within three miles of its coast, irrespective of the existence of an expressly defined seaward boundary to that distance. It was substantially agreed that the 13 original Colonies owned the lands within three miles of their coasts because of their sovereignty and the alleged international custom which permitted a nation to extend its territorial jurisdiction that far. 26 Some proponents of the legislation seem to have concluded that therefore, not only did the  original States retain such rights after formation of the Union, but that subsequently admitted States acquired similar rights within three miles, irrespective of the location of their boundaries, by the operation of the equal-footing clause. 27 It was also suggested that state ownership within three miles came about by operation of federal law because of the Federal Government’s assumed adherence to the three-mile limit of territorial waters. 28 While some speakers maintained that these factors in effect gave each State a ihree-mile maritime boundary, 29 others eschewed technical reliance on the matter of boundaries and thought it sufficient that the Pollard rule had always been thought to confer ownership on the State of lands within three miles of the coast and that the States ought to be restored to the position they believed they had formerly occupied. 30 And there is some sugges  tion that since many States, under the Congressional view of Pollard, had indisputable claims to three miles of submerged lands, the remainder ought to be treated on a parity whether or not their claims were technically justified. 31 The upshot of all of these differing views was the confirmation of each coastal State’s seaward boundary at three geographical miles.