Court Opinion

ID: 9496604
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:30:50.005358+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:41.024409
License: Public Domain

GRABER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
With regret, I must respectfully dissent.
The second sentence of its opinion contains the key to the majority’s errors here: “The issues we are required to confront are new, important, and difficult.” Maj. op. at 1280. Although the issues that we confront are important and difficult, they are not new. Because the issues are not new, we are bound by existing Supreme Court precedent, which the majority misreads. Because the issues are important and difficult, the Supreme Court has decided to revisit them, and we should await the Supreme Court’s imminent decision.
1. Johnson v. Eisentrager
In Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U.S. 763, 70 S.Ct. 936, 94 L.Ed. 1255 (1950), the Supreme Court held that an enemy alien who was detained by the United States military overseas could not bring a petition for habeas corpus in the courts of the United States. Our courts lack jurisdiction in that circumstance, and the sole remedy for the enemy alien lies with the political branches of government.1 Id. at 779-81, 70 S.Ct. 936.
A straightforward reading of Johnson makes it clear that “sovereignty” is the touchstone, under current law, for the exercise of federal courts’ jurisdiction. As the Supreme Court explained, the petitioners in Johnson could not bring a habeas petition because they committed crimes, were captured, were tried, and were being detained outside “any territory over which the United States is sovereign.” Id. at 777, 70 S.Ct. 936.
The majority invents the novel proposition that, because the Supreme Court used the phrase “territorial jurisdiction” more often than it used the term “sovereignty,” the former concept governs and the latter may be disregarded. Maj. op. at 1287-88. Counting phrases is not, in my view, a valid method of analyzing the Court’s meaning.
More telling is the way in which the Court distinguished cases in which enemy aliens were allowed to bring habeas petitions in federal courts, cases like Yamashita v. Styer (In re Yamashita), 327 U.S. 1, 66 S.Ct. 340, 90 L.Ed. 499 (1946). In Johnson the Court held that Yamashita was different because, in Yamashita, the United States had “sovereignty” over the place where the petitioner was held and, therefore, the federal courts had jurisdiction “[b]y reason of our sovereignty.” Johnson, 339 U.S. at 780, 70 S.Ct. 936. “Sovereignty” was the only distinction on which Johnson relied. There may be, as the majority argues, other possible distinctions, but they were of no moment to the Johnson Court, whose opinion we must construe.
In short, the holding in Johnson precludes federal courts from exercising jurisdiction over an enemy alien who is de*1306tained — and who has always been — outside the sovereign territory of the United States. Only the Supreme Court may modify the “sovereignty” rule established by Johnson. See Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/Am. Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989) (“If a precedent of this Court has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to this Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.”). The majority cites no authority in which the Supreme Court has declared that Johnson is no longer good law.
The Supreme Court has granted certio-rari in a consolidated appeal that presents an opportunity for the Court to revisit Johnson’s “sovereignty” rule. See Al Odah v. United States, 321 F.3d 1134 (D.C.Cir.2003), supra note 1. Until the Supreme Court informs us otherwise, however, the key inquiry remains whether the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (“Guantanamo”) is sovereign territory of the United States.
2. The Status of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
a. The Guantanamo Lease
(i) The Lease Recognizes the “Continuance of Ultimate Sovereignty” by Cuba Over Guantanamo.
The majority concludes “that, at least for habeas purposes, Guantanamo is a part of the sovereign territory of the United States.” Maj. op. at 1290. There are two things wrong with that sentence.
First, it is unclear how a place can be, as the majority implies Guantanamo is, a part of “the sovereign territory of the United States” for habeas purposes but not for other purposes. The “sovereignty” that Johnson requires appears to be the ordinary kind. Cf. Black’s Law Dictionary 1402 (7th ed.1999) (defining “sovereignty” as: “1. Supreme dominion, authority, or rule. 2. The supreme political authority of an independent state. 3. The state itself.”).
Second, and more fundamentally, Guantanamo is the sovereign territory of Cuba. The relevant treaty explains that “the United States recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water.” Agreement Between the United States and Cuba for the Lease of Lands for Coaling and Naval Stations, Feb. 16-23, 1903, U.S.-Cuba, art. III, T.S. No. 418 (“Guantanamo Lease”) (emphasis added).2
The majority’s interpretation of the Guantanamo Lease is problematic because the majority takes the phrase “ultimate sovereignty” out of context. I already have cited the definition of “sovereignty.” The 1913 version of Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary offers these definitions for “ultimate”:
1. Farthest; most remote in space or time; extreme; last; final.
*13072. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an ultimate constituent of matter.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1560 (1913), http://humanities.uchica-go.edu/forms_unresVwebster.form.html.
The majority reads the Lease’s use of “ultimate” in the temporal sense (“most remote in ... time”). In context, however, I believe that the Lease is using “ultimate” in the sense of “extreme,” “incapable of further division or separation,” or “elemental.” That is, key to understanding the phrase “ultimate sovereignty” is to recognize the significance of the contextual term “continuance.”3
The 1913 dictionary offers these definitions for “continuance”:
1. A holding on, or remaining in a particular state; permanence, as of condition, habits, abode, etc.; perseverance; constancy; duration; stay.
2. Uninterrupted succession; continuation; constant renewell [sic]; perpetuation; propagation.
3. A holding together; continuity. [Obs.]
4. (Law)(a) The adjournment of the proceedings in a cause from one day, or from one stated term of a court, to another, (b) The entry of such adjournment and the grounds thereof on the record.
Id. at 313. The only definitions that make sense in the present context are the first and second ones — the third being obsolete, and the fourth being obviously irrelevant. Thus, the Lease’s use of the word “continuance” denotes the ongoing nature of Cuba’s “ultimate sovereignty” over Guantanamo.
The majority’s attempt to explain away the contextual use of the words “continuance” and “ultimate” is unpersuasive. The majority reads the Lease to vest in Cuba only a “contingent sovereign interest — a reversionary right that springs into being upon a lawful termination of the U.S. reign. It is this reversionary interest that is ‘continued’ even as substantive (or qualitative) .sovereignty is ceded to the United States.” Maj. op. at 1293.
The Lease might have created such a reversionary right (although I read it differently). But the Lease logically could not have continued such a right, because no such “reversionary” right existed before the Lease was signed (when Cuba indisputably was the sole sovereign over Guantanamo).
By contrast, if “ultimate” refers not to the temporal activation of a reversionary interest, but to ongoing elemental, indivisible sovereignty, the whole phrase — “the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba” — in the Guantana*1308mo Lease makes sense. The Lease is discussing the continuance of the elemental, indivisible sovereignty of Cuba with respect to Guantanamo.4
The drafters of the Lease wanted to make clear that, although the United States was granted powers that often run with sovereignty (e.g., “complete jurisdiction and control”), in fact Cuba was retaining all sovereignty over Guantanamo for itself. That is to say, Cuba retained ultimate, or elemental, or indivisible sovereignty, despite the fact that the United States would be allowed to act, de facto, a lot like a sovereign would act.
The majority’s concerns about what the word “ultimate” could add to the concept of “sovereignty,” maj. op. at 1291-92, are thus misplaced. The Lease goes to great pains to explain that all sovereignty over Guantanamo is “unbundled” from the rights of jurisdiction and control. Cuba keeps the former continually, while the United States enjoys the latter. The word “ultimate” serves the purpose of preventing the United States from asserting that it has any legal sovereignty deriving from the jurisdiction and control that it enjoys. In the absence of the word “ultimate,” one could conclude that Cuba had handed over not only the rights to jurisdiction and control, but also the underlying sovereignty that forms the basis for the authority to enjoy (or, as here, to transfer the right to enjoy) those rights.
The contemporaneously signed Spanish version of the Lease supports a substantive, rather than temporal, understanding of the term “ultimate” even more strongly than the English version. See United State v. Percheman, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 51, 88, 8 L.Ed. 604 (1833) (“If the English and the Spanish parts can, without violence, be made to agree, that construction which establishes this conformity ought to prevail”). The Spanish version of the disputed text reads: “Si bien los Estados Unidos reconocen por su parte la continuación de la soberanía definitiva de la República de Cuba.” Convenio de 16/23 de Febrero de 1903, Entre la República de Cuba y los Estados Unidos de América para arrendar á los Estados Unidos (bajos las condiciones que habran de convenires por los dos Gobi-ernos) tierras en Cuban para estaciones carboneras y navales, Tratados, Convenios y Convenciones (Habana 1936) (emphasis added). There is no dispute that “sobera-nía” refers to “sovereignty” or that “con-tinuación” equates to the English cognate “continuation.” The word “definitiva” is the feminine form of the adjective “defini-tivo,” which meant to a reader at the time “[djícese de lo que decide, resuelve o con-cluye”: a term used to describe that which decides, resolves or concludes [a matter]. Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana por la Real Academia Española 329 (Decimocuar-ta ed.1914). A contemporaneous Spanish-to-English dictionary translated “definiti-vo” as (not surprisingly) “definitive” or *1309“determinate.” A New Pronouncing Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages 209 (1908). At the time, “definitive” was understood primarily to mean “[djeterminate; positive; final; conclusive; unconditional; express.” Webster’s at 382. Similarly, “determinate” was defined as “[h]aving defined limits; not uncertain or arbitrary; fixed; established; definite[;][c]onclusive; decisive; positive.” Id. at 401. Although a temporal sense could be squeezed out of those definitions, their most natural meaning is that the issue of sovereignty was decided, resolved, or concluded in favor of Cuba.
(ii) Other Terms of the Lease Suggest That Cuba Retains Sovereignty Over Guantanamo.
Other provisions of the Lease demonstrate that Cuba currently enjoys sovereignty over Guantanamo. Article III of the Lease states that Cuba consents to the United States’ exercise of jurisdiction and control over Guantanamo “during the period of the occupation” by the United States. The 1918 Webster’s dictionary defines “occupation” (in relevant part) as “1. The act or process of occupying or taking possession; actual possession and control; the state of being occupied; a holding or keeping; tenure; use; as, the occupation of lands by a tenant.” Webster’s at 994. Thus, the United States, as an “occupier,” enjoys the status of a tenant rather than a landlord. Indeed, it would be odd for a sovereign to be described as “occupying” its own lands; instead, the term usually means the exercise of control by one nation over the sovereign territory of another.
Additionally, if the United States were a true sovereign, it could permissibly do many things at Guantanamo that it is not entitled to do. For instance, the United States may not permissibly change the use of the land (say, by raising commercial crops);5 if the United States were sovereign, it could raise commercial crops. If the property is abandoned, the lease ends automatically;6 if the United States were sovereign, it could allow the land to lie idle without jeopardizing its sovereignty and its concomitant right to use the property later. Cuban trade vessels must be allowed free passage;7 if the United States were sovereign, it could choose to refuse passage to another nation’s vessels for economic, political, or other reasons. The United States pays rent; if it were sovereign, it would have the legal right to use the land without paying another sovereign state annually for the privilege. The United States never has enjoyed these rights because Cuba, as sovereign, never relinquished them.
The majority asserts that the United States has repeatedly breached the terms of the Lease by using Guantanamo other than as a naval base and coaling station. Maj. op. at 1294.8 The majority then rea*1310sons that sovereignty is demonstrated by the United States’ repeated violations of the Lease. Maj. op. at 1294. That conclusion does not follow.
The fact that Cuba lacks the political or military might necessary to hold the United States responsible for breaching the Lease does not mean that the United States has not breached the Lease or that the Lease has ceased to exist.9 The ability to violate terms of an agreement with impunity does not render a party legally free to ignore the agreement. It means only that the party in breach is spared the practical consequences of its improper acts. If a celebrity tenant breaches his lease by keeping unauthorized pets, and the landlord feels that she can do nothing about it, the tenant does not thereby become the owner of the house. Indeed, the landlord may not even have waived the right to enforce the no-pet term of the lease later. Rather, the tenant is in breach of the lease but escapes the attendant consequences.
Similarly, even if the United States has violated the Lease, it simply is big enough and strong enough that Cuba has been unable to enforce its legal entitlements. This difference in power does not erase the United States’ obligations under the Lease, nor does it mean that Guantanamo is a part of the sovereign territory of the United States. The Lease is actually a lease, albeit a highly unusual one with a very pushy tenant.
As is the case with most leases, the tenant has a right of quiet enjoyment during the lease term. The owner — even though “ultimate” ownership “continues” during the term of the lease — gives up jurisdiction and control over the property with whatever limits are agreed by the parties to the lease. That is just what happened here. Even a life tenancy or an option to buy does not convey fee simple ownership to the tenant.
b. The Hay-Bunavr-Vanlla Treaty
The majority seeks to bolster its conclusion that Guantanamo is part of the sovereign territory of the United States by referring to the 1904 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (“Panama Canal Treaty”), which authorized construction of the Panama Canal. Maj. op. at 1296-97. An examination of the Panama Canal Treaty actually weakens the majority’s case, however.
The Attorney General’s Opinion explained that, in the view of the executive branch:
Article 3 of the treaty transfers to the United States, not the sovereignty by that term, but “all the rights, power and authority” within the Zone that it would have if it were sovereign....
The omission to use words expressly passing sovereignty was dictated by reasons of public policy, I assume; but whatever the reason the treaty gives the substance of sovereignty, and instead of containing a mere declaration transferring the sovereignty, descends to the particulars “all the rights, power, and authority” that belong to sovereignty, and negatives any such “sovereign rights, power, or authority” in the former sovereign.
26 Op. Att’y Gen. 376, 377 (1907). Article III of the Panama Canal Treaty, on which the Attorney General’s Opinion relied, reads in its entirety:
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights, power and authority within the zone mentioned and described in Article II of this agreement *1311and within the limits of all auxiliary lands and waters mentioned and described in said Article II which the United States would possess and exercise if it were the sovereign of the territory within which said lands and waters are located to the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, power or authority.
Convention for the Construction of a Ship Canal to Connect the Waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Nov. 18, 1903, U.S.Panama, art. Ill, 33 Stat. 2234 (emphasis added).
The text of Article III of the Panama Canal Treaty differs from the provisions of the Guantanamo Lease. The Guantanamo Lease never says that the United States is granted “all” of the “rights, power and authority” that it would enjoy “if it were the sovereign.” To the contrary, the Guantanamo Lease mentions the concept of sovereignty in connection with Cuba, not in connection with the United States. The Guantanamo Lease provides that “the United States recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water.” Guantanamo Lease, art. Ill (emphasis added). There is no similar recognition in the Panama Canal Treaty.
The Panama Canal Treaty and the Guantanamo Lease share many similarities, as the majority points out. But the only question here is whether the United States was granted sovereignty, and the texts of the documents differ dramatically on this point. The Panama Canal Treaty granted “all the rights, power and authority” of a “sovereign” to the United States, with no express reservation of sovereignty to Panama. The Guantanamo Lease is just the opposite; it grants to the United States the “exercise” of “complete jurisdiction and control over and within” a designated area, while reserving “the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty” to Cuba. This distinction in the texts of the two documents must be deemed intentional and must be given effect. The Panama Canal Treaty passed sovereignty to the United States, while the Guantanamo Lease did not.
A comparison of the provisions of the two documents with respect to eminent domain, likewise, underscores the differing treatment of sovereignty. In the Guantanamo Lease, Cuba gives the United States the power of eminent domain; that is, this is a lease with an option to buy. Guantanamo Lease, art. III. If the United States were sovereign, this provision would be redundant because, by definition, a sovereign could exercise the power of eminent domain.
An examination of the Panama Canal Treaty illustrates this truism. In the Panama Canal Treaty, Panama gave the United States a similar power of eminent domain, or a lease with an option to buy, only with respect to areas that were not given to the United States as its sovereign territory— the cities and harbors of Panama and Colon, Panama Canal Treaty, arts. II and VII. In the areas as to which Panama ceded sovereignty, such a clause was unnecessary because the power of eminent domain is an attribute of sovereignty. But, in both the Guantanamo Lease and the Panama Canal Treaty, in areas as to which Cuba and Panama (respectively) retained sovereignty the option to buy had to be granted specifically as a contractual term.
3. Separation of Powers
One additional point bears mention. The executive branch -has taken the position that “the United States has no claim of sovereignty over the leased areas” of Guantanamo. Brief for Appellees George W. Bush et al., filed June 18, 2003, at 17. *1312Rather, “Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located within the sovereign territory of the Republic of Cuba.” Id.
The Supreme Court has recently reminded us that the Constitution allocates the foreign relations power to the federal executive in recognition of the “concern for uniformity in this country’s dealings with foreign nations.” Am. Ins. Ass’n v. Garamendi, — U.S. -, -, 123 S.Ct. 2374, 2386, 156 L.Ed.2d 376 (2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). “ ‘Although the source of the President’s power to act in foreign affairs does not enjoy any textual detail, the historical gloss on the “executive Power” vested in Article II of the Constitution has recognized the President’s “vast share of responsibility for the conduct of our foreign relations.” ’ ” Id. (quoting Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 610-11, 72 S.Ct. 863, 96 L.Ed. 1153 (1952) (Frankfurter, J., concurring); see also, e.g., First Nat’l City Bank v. Banco Nacional de Cuba, 406 U.S. 759, 767, 92 S.Ct. 1808, 32 L.Ed.2d 466 (1972) (explaining that the President has “the lead role ... in foreign policy”); Chi. & S. Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 338 U.S. 103, 109, 68 S.Ct. 431, 92 L.Ed. 568 (1948) (noting the President’s role as the “Nation’s organ in foreign affairs”).
The majority today declares that the United States has sovereignty over territory of a foreign state, over the objections of the executive branch. Indeed, both parties to the Guantanamo Lease and its associated treaties' — Cuba and the United States (through the executive branch)— maintain that Guantanamo is part of Cuba. Nevertheless, the majority announces that the United States has annexed Guantanamo. In so doing, the majority “compromise[s] the very capacity of the President to speak for the Nation with one voice in dealing with other governments.” Crosby v. Nat’l Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363, 381, 120 S.Ct. 2288, 147 L.Ed.2d 352 (2000). It has created an inconsistency in our nation’s foreign policy, with one branch (which has primary responsibility in this field) declaring that the United States is not sovereign over Guantanamo, and a second branch (which is not politically accountable) declaring that it is. The complications that flow from such a situation are as obvious now as they were to the framers, who chose to avoid them by granting to the President the lead authority in foreign affairs.
Perhaps in some circumstance, a federal court would be obliged in the execution of its constitutional duties to declare, over the objections of the executive branch, that the United States is sovereign over some territory. However, in view of the constitutional allocation of powers, and the need for the United States to speak with one voice in dealing with foreign nations, federal courts should tread lightly. The question whether the United States has sovereignty over Guantanamo is undeniably close. That being so, the issue is particularly sensitive and the declarations by the executive branch regarding foreign policy should carry significant weight. The majority’s failure to credit the executive branch’s position on sovereignty over Guantanamo is an unwise and unwarranted extension of judicial authority in an arena belonging primarily to the executive branch.
4. Defeml
As noted, the Supreme Court has recently granted certiorari in a consolidated appeal that provides the Court with an opportunity to consider the question about which the majority and I disagree. The orders granting certiorari were limited to this question: “Whether United States courts lack jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of *1313foreign nationals captured abroad in connection with hostilities and incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.” I believe that we should wait to hear the Supreme Court’s answer to that question, because the views that we express here will become obsolete as soon as the Supreme Court renders its decision.
The issues that Mr. Gherebi raises are significant and troubling. Under existing Supreme Court precedent, however, I do not believe that we have jurisdiction to reach them.10 There are good arguments that can (and undoubtedly will) be made in support of the proposition that federal courts should have the power to hear ha-beas petitions of prisoners held by officers of the United States government, whatever the prisoners’ nationality and whatever their situs of imprisonment. If the Supreme Court is persuaded by those arguments to modify or overrule Johnson, I look forward to reaching the merits of this case. But until the Supreme Court speaks, nothing that the majority or I say can have any legal effect. Our decision is, in a practical sense, advisory. I therefore believe that we should defer submission until the Supreme Court decides Rasul and Al Odah.
5. Conclusion
It is of grave concern when federal courts, traditionally the guardians of our Constitution and our liberties, turn away claims that government officials have violated an individual’s rights. I am reluctant, as was the district court, to hold that the court lacked jurisdiction over Mr. Gherebi’s petition for habeas corpus, and my view should not be mistaken for approval either of Mr. Gherebi’s detention or of the precedent that prevents us from scrutinizing it. But I am equally reluctant to distort treaties, leases, and Supreme Court cases to reach a more desirable outcome. Change in the law, if any there will be, must come from the Supreme Court. Failing that, a remedy, if any there will be, must come from Congress and the executive branch.
Accordingly, and regrettably, I dissent.

. Two of our sister circuits have reached the identical conclusion. See Al Odah v. United States, 321 F.3d 1134, 1143 (D.C.Cir.2003), cert. granted,-U.S. --, 124 S.Ct. 534, 157 L.Ed.2d 407 (2003) ("Rasul ”), and-U.S. -, 124 S.Ct. 534, 157 L.Ed.2d 407 (2003) ("Al Odah ") (consolidated); Cuban Am. Bar Ass'n v. Christopher, 43 F.3d 1412, 1425 (11th Cir.1995).

. In addition to the Guantanamo Lease, other agreements between the United States and Cuba are relevant. The two governments agreed on July 2, 1903, to the so-called "Parallel Treaty,” which "conclude[d] the conditions of the lease” signed in February 1903. Lease of Certain Areas for Naval or Coaling Stations, July 2, 1903, T.S. No. 426 ("Parallel Treaty”), pmbl. The Parallel Treaty also set additional terms (such as the amount of annual rent) affecting the Guantanamo Lease. Additionally, the 1934 U.S.-Cuba Treaty maintained that the "supplementary agreement in regard to naval or coaling stations signed between the two Governments on July 2, 1903, also shall continue in effect in the same form and on the same conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantanamo.” Treaty Between the United States of America and Cuba Defining Their Relations, May 29, 1934, U.S.-Cuba, art. Ill, 48 Stat. 1682, 1683.

. Under Article 31.1 of the Vienna Convention, "[a] treaty shall be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose.” Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, May 23, 1969, art. 31.1, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 (Jan. 27, 1980) (emphasis added). Although the United States is not a signatory to the Vienna Convention, it is the policy of the United States to apply Articles 31 and 32 as customary international law. Gonzalez v. Gutierrez, 311 F.3d 942, 949 n. 15 (9th Cir.2002).
To the extent that the Lease is better seen as a contract, similar rules require us to give each word meaning. See Cree v. Waterbury, 78 F.3d 1400, 1405 (9th Cir.1996) (explaining the rule of contract construction that "a court must give effect to every word or term employed by the parties and reject none as meaningless or surplusage in arriving at the intention of the contracting parties” (internal quotation marks omitted)).

. Sovereignty is not always an all-or-nothing concept. "Partial sovereignty" and the concurrent existence of "joint sovereigns” are well-established concepts in American law. For example, this concept of less-than-complete sovereignty is at the heart of our federal system: the States are "sovereign” but subject to requirements imposed by the Federal Constitution. Thus, the Supreme Court has explained the purpose of the Eleventh Amendment as being "rooted in a recognition that the States, although a union, maintain certain attributes of sovereignty, including sovereign immunity.” P.R. Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U.S. 139, 146, 113 S.Ct. 684, 121 L.Ed.2d 605 (1993); see also Fed. Mar. Comm'n v. S.C. State Ports Auth., 535 U.S. 743, 765, 122 S.Ct. 1864, 152 L.Ed.2d 962 (2002) (explaining that the central purpose of the sovereign immunity doctrine is to "accord the States the respect owed them as joint sovereigns” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Thus, in theory, Cuba could have ceded some, but not all, of its sovereignty over Guantanamo to the United States.

. Guantanamo Lease, art. II ("The grant ... shall include the right ... to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose." (emphasis added)).

. Parallel Treaty, art. I ("The United States of America agrees and covenants to pay to the Republic of Cuba the annual sum of two thousand dollars, in cold coin of the United States, as long as the former shall occupy and use said areas of land by virtue of said agreement.”).

. Guantanamo Lease, art. II.

.Although the United States may have violated the Lease in a number of ways, holding prisoners at Guantanamo does not appear to be one of them. Under the Lease, the United States is entitled to maintain a Navy base at Guantanamo. Navy bases commonly contain brigs to hold prisoners. See, e.g., The Brig: A Two Hundred Year Tradition, at http://www.brigpuget.navy.mil/history.htm (last visited Dec. 11, 2003). Using the Guantanamo brig to hold prisoners thus seems at first blush not to violate the Lease's provisions.

. The Government of Cuba apparently adheres to my view on this point. See Maj. op. at 1294 n. 19.

. For the same reason, I would not reach the issue of venue.