Court Opinion

ID: 9426445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:58.16121+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.882190
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice White,
with whom Mr. Justice Black-mun and Mr. Justice Stevens join, dissenting.
I find unacceptable the Court’s cursory conclusion that the Special Master and we ourselves are bound to accept the agreement of the parties as to the meaning of the words “middle of the river” and related phrases which were used in the 1740 document to describe the Maine-New Hampshire boundaries, as well as their agreement as to where that line lies on the face of the earth.
The parties interpret “middle of the river” as meaning the thalweg, which they understand to be the middle of the main channel of navigation. The States then fashioned their mutually agreed boundary in the river and the harbor on this basis, their boundary in the ocean being a straight line between the points at which the main navigation channels cross the closing lines of *371Portsmouth and Gosport Harbors. No inquiry is made, however, by either the Court or the parties as to whether the “middle of the river” has, or had, any commonly understood meaning in the law. The Special Master concluded that these words, when used in 1740, intended to describe the geographic middle of the river — a line all points of which were equidistant from the nearest points on the shores. This was the meaning given to very similar words in Texas v. Louisiana, 410 U. S. 702 (1973); and it seems incredible to me that however correct the Special Master may be in this regard — and the Court does not even imply that he is wrong — he must nevertheless accept the parties’ agreement that the middle of the river is the middle of the main channel of navigation.
The Court’s holding seems to be that whatever the parties might agree to with respect to the import of the 1740 language, the Special Master and the courts must give their imprimatur. As I understand the Court, the stipulation would have been just as acceptable and just as binding upon us if the parties had agreed that the middle of the river was intended to mean the geographical center of the stream.
I agree with the contrary view of the Special Master that the middle-of-the-river language should be determined in accordance with legal principles, not by agreements of convenience. The Special Master concluded that when the language involved was employed in 1740 the geographic middle rather than the thalweg or main channel of the river was intended. The Court does not hold the Special Master to be wrong in this regard, and it would be difficult to believe that the “middle of the river” should be determined by what the main channel of navigation might turn out to be in the 1970’s.
The parties agree that the geographic middle and the main channel of navigation áre totally different concepts. *372The map filed by the State of Maine in connection with its exceptions indicates the great difference it makes whether the stipulated boundary or the geographic middle is to rule this case. The State strongly objects to the latter because substantial areas both in the river and harbor and seaward would be lost to its neighbor, New Hampshire.
Furthermore, whether the middle of the river is to mean the thalweg or a line equidistant from the shores, the boundary should be laid out in accordance with the legal import of these concepts. This does not seem to be the case with respect to the stipulated boundary in the Piscataqua River and Portsmouth Harbor; for the agreed boundary proceeds on absolutely straight lines, and it is incredible that a line following the main or deepest channel would proceed on such an invariable course. What the parties have actually done is to agree upon a line which they assert represents the course most usually followed by those navigating the harbor and the river. This is not at all the same thing as a boundary following the thalweg.
I would not think that without the consent of Congress two States could agree to locate the boundary between them on either shore of the river separating them if the controlling document describes their boundary as the middle of the river; nor, if the document made it plain that the main chaimel in the river was their boundary line, would they be free to stipulate that the boundary should be the geographic center of the stream nor should a court approve any such stipulation. Rather it should determine and lay out the line in accordance with accepted legal principles and enter a decree accordingly. This is what the Special Master recommended that we do, and his Report should be accepted and a decree entered in accordance therewith.