Opinion ID: 170350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Federal Acceptance of Less than Exclusive Jurisdiction Prior to 1940

Text: Alternatively, Fields argues that even if § 480 did not bar federal territorial jurisdiction explicitly, it did so implicitly by requiring the retention of concurrent jurisdiction by the ceding state, which in turn precluded the only form of jurisdiction (exclusive) the United States was authorized to accept at the time it acquired the land at issue here. This argument rests on the faulty premise that the United States could not accept a cession of less than exclusive jurisdiction. [5] When the United States acquired the land at issue here in 1931, federal acceptance of ceded jurisdiction was presumed absent an express refusal. See Fort Leavenworth R. Co. v. Lowe, 114 U.S. 525, 528, 5 S.Ct. 995, 29 L.Ed. 264 (1885); United States v. Lewisburg Area Sch. Dist., 539 F.2d 301, 306 n. 12 (3d Cir.1976); United States v. Johnson, 426 F.2d 1112, 1114 (7th Cir.1970). In 1940, Congress passed 40 U.S.C. § 255 (now § 3112), abrogating the rule of presumptive acceptance and substituting a notice procedure by which authorized federal officials expressly accept ceded jurisdiction. [6] The statute also specifically permits the United States to accept less than exclusive territorial jurisdiction. 40 U.S.C. § 3112(a). Seizing on this latter point, Fields draws the negative implication that, prior to 1940, the. United States was unable to accept less than exclusive jurisdiction. But the recognition of non-exclusive territorial jurisdiction in § 3112(a) merely affirmed a point already well established by Supreme Court authority. See James v. Dravo Contracting Co., 302 U.S. 134, 147-48, 148-49, 58 S.Ct. 208, 82 L.Ed. 155 (1937) (citing cases, including Fort Leavenworth, for rule that state may qualify cession of jurisdiction, thereby creating concurrent state and federal jurisdiction, and extending rule to Enclave Clause property); see also United States v. Burton, 888 F.2d 682, 684-85 & n. 3 (10th Cir.1989) (citing James and Fort Leavenworth as establishing that [t]he federal government can obtain concurrent or exclusive jurisdiction over specific property either by complying with the provisions of [the Enclave Clause], or by receiving a cession of legislative jurisdiction from the state in which the property is located. (footnote omitted)). As there were no restrictions on the cession and acceptance of concurrent territorial jurisdiction at the relevant times, Oklahoma effectively ceded and the United States could properly accept concurrent jurisdiction over the national forest land at issue here.